Charles Patrick Tracey was born on 4 October 1908 at Hurtsville, New South Wales to Patrick and Ada May Tracey. He was baptized on 18 November of the same year. Tracey lived with his family in Hurtsville until 1936 and worked as a bank clerk. On 25 January 1937 he married Jessie Amos Robertson Sked, with whom he later had a daughter, Lynne.

Tracey enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 28 November 1940 and joined the 2/26 Australian Infantry Battalion. He was serving in Singapore when it was surrendered to the Japanese and was taken as a Prisoner of War (POW) on 15 February 1942. During his imprisonment, Tracey witnessed the treatment suffered by other POWs, particularly those involved with the work teams in Thailand. He was released in 1945 after the Japanese surrender and the arrival of Allied troops in Changi POW Camp. Tracey was formally discharged on 23 January 1946. In the same year an official inquiry was launched to investigate potential war crimes committed at Singapore. On 9 September 1946, Tracey lodged a witness statement with this inquiry describing his experiences in Thailand.

After the war, he moved to Richmond, New South Wales and returned to his work as first a bank clerk and then a bank manager. After moving a number of times, Tracey settled in Orange, New South Wales in 1968, where he lived until his death on 14 October 1974. Tracey is remembered at the New South Wales Garden of Remembrance, Rookwood, New South Wales.