Charles was born in Glenelg, South Australia to George Arthur Jury (c 1851 – 9 April 1932) and his second wife Elizabeth Susan "Betty" Jury, née Rischbieth (1867 – 14 June 1929), whom he married on 9 September 1890. His first wife Margaret "Maggie" (née Wiedenhofer) took her own life. Elizabeth Susan Jury was the daughter of G & R Wills partner Charles Rischbieth (1835 – 5 April 1893) and his wife Elizabeth Susan née Wills (7 November 1842 – 15 January 1908).
He was educated at F. I. Caterer"s Glenelg Grammar School and at Saint Peter"s College. He graduated with a first in English Literature.
George was an accountant with wholesaler G. & R. Wills. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford in 1913, but broke his studies to enlist in the British Army in the early days of World War I, and was badly wounded at Ypres in 1915 and returned to civilian life and his studies in March 1916. A gratuity from his father made him financially independent, and free to follow his first loves: poetry and English literature.
He found the climate in Greece and Italy, especially Taormina and Catania in Sicily, more conducive to writing than either England or Australia, but did return to Adelaide on occasion.
He took various lecturing and tutoring positions at Saint Mark"s College and the University of Adelaide. (With a change in administration, Piper was not offered the chair, which Jury saw as a betrayal, and appointed David Nichol Smith instead) Later appointments included Norman "Derry" Jeffares in 1951, Colin Horne in 1957 and John Colmer in 1977.
Penny Boumelha filled the chair in 1990, which has been vacant since 2009. He joined the Citizens" Military Forces in 1941 and served as an Intelligence officer at the Loveday internment camp and in Brisbane.
Charles, despite his classical inclinations in literature, was generous in his support for modern writers: Max Harris, Douglas, Barbara Wall, Margaret Finniss, John Bray, Alison Gent, Michael Taylor and Brian Medlin.
lieutenant was Charles who suggested Max Harris use his phrase Angry Penguins as the title for his magazine. He died of cancer at his North Adelaide home and was cremated. Charles never married.
He had three sisters.
A portrait by Bill Salmon is held by Elspeth Ballantyne.
