Ernest Edward Edmunds (1885 - 1915)

Ernest Edward Edmunds was my second cousin twice removed; his grandfather William Edmunds (born 1806) was the brother of my great great grandfather John Edmunds (born 1814).

Ernest Edward Edmunds was born in 1885; he was the son of Henry and Eleanor Rachel (nee Conduit) of The Road, Boscombe. Ernest worked as an agricultural labourer and enlisted in the 2nd Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment at Devizes on 28th December 1914. He was given the service number 18267. After training he embarked at Southampton on the 4th May 1915 with the 14th batch of reinforcements and joined his Battalion four days later. The Battalion were not in the forward trenches when he joined but on the 16th May he had his first experience of real warfare, the whole Battalion was engaged in fierce fighting for two days. The next few months saw the Battalion in a number of major offensives with long periods spent in the trenches. On the 25th September the Battalion were in the Verquin area and marched via La Bourse and Sailly to occupy a reserve line of trenches South East of Noyes at about 3 am. Preceded by an intense bombardment of the enemy lines, the Battalion advanced at 6 am to occupy front line trenches. The fighting was fierce from the start with many casualties suffered by the 2nd Battalion. At dusk the Battalion was relieved by the 9th Devonshire Regiment, but only to take up a new front to the right. The fighting lessened during the night and the next day, the 26th September, the Battalion took up new positions to support the 1st/4th Cameron Highlanders. On the 26th September Private Ernest Edmunds was first reported missing and then killed. He was 29 years old. Ernest Edward Edmunds has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France, Panel 102.

With thanks to Tony Lyons for his assistance