Engineer Commander Charles Roy William Bolt was born on October 28th, 1903, in Ramsgate, Kent. He was the first child of Charles William Bolt, and his wife Eleanor Jane Bolt, née Micklewright.
Charles William Bolt, who died in 1950, served as Captain Engineer in the Navy, and his son followed in his footsteps. He appears to have started his naval career in 1922 and served on various ships in the Atlantic and Mediterranean before attaining the rank of Engineer Commander at the end of 1939. He joined HMS Dunedin on January 20th, 1940.