Pte 25587 George Ernest Edwards

Pte 25587 George Ernest EDWARDS, 19th Battalion KLR.

George Edwards was born in the December quarter of 1895 in Liverpool, the third of four sons born to Thomas Edwards and his wife Eliza (nee Palmer), who were both natives of Shropshire. His parents married on 20th March 1879 at Bishops Castle, Shropshire. By the time of George's birth his parents had moved to Garston, Liverpool.

The 1901 Census finds the family lived at 23 Clifton Street, Garston. George's father, Thomas, is a 43 year old dock labourer born Lydbury, Shropshire, his mother Eliza is 41 years old and was born in Bishops Castle, Shropshire. They have five children in the household; Bessie 20 b.Lydbury, Thomas Henry 16 a number taker with LNWR Company b.Clun, Shropshire, John 12 b.Clun, Shropshire, William 11 b.Bishops Castle, Shropshire, George 5 b.Garston. Also declared is his father's cousin James Morris 16.

By 1911, the family had moved to 9 McBride Street, Garston, when his father 51 is employed as a railway porter, his mother Eliza is 51. They have been married for 38 years and have had 10 children,  8  of whom have survived. They have four children in the household; Thomas Henry 26 is a hydraulic crane driver;  John James 24, is a railway checker, and George 15 is a telegraphist with LNWR and in 1913 is shown as a 17 year old member of the NUR Garston Branch and is described as a telegraph clerk. The youngest son, Stephen, born in 1903, is still at school.

George enlisted in Liverpool joining the 19th Battalion as Private 25587.

With no access to George’s service record we can only say that he went to France on 7th November 1915 and earned the 1914/15 Star, Victory Medal and British War Medal.

He is shown in the records as having been killed on or about 11th July 1916  during the fighting at Trones Wood.

The murderous fighting that went on inside Trones Wood rendered it impossible to put specific dates on some of the casualties which is why many of the 17^th Battalion losses have been bracketed as killed in action between 10^th – 12th July 1916.The conditions are best described in the following passage from Everard Wyrall’s book The History of The King’s Regiment (Liverpool) Volume II. 

The remembrance of Trones Wood in July 1916 to those who passed through it is of a noisome, horrible place, of a tangled mass of trees and undergrowth which had been tossed and flung about in frightful confusion by the shells of both sides. Of the ghastly dead which lay about in all directions, and of DEATH, lurking in every hole and corner with greedy hands ready to snatch the lives of the unwary.  The place was Death trap, and although the attacks were made with great determination,   the presence of snipers who could not be detected and often fired into the backs of our men made the clearing of the wood impossible.

His body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916.

On 01st August 1932 the Prince of Wales and the President of France inaugurated the Thiepval Memorial in Picardy. The inscription reads: “Here are recorded the names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death.”

Soldiers Effects father Thomas, Pension to mother Eliza.

 

George is commemorated on the family headstone at Allerton Cemetery, Liverpool which states his date of death as being the 12th July 1916 and confirms his age as 20. The family added the epitaph;

"He gave his life for others"

George is also commemorated on the following memorial:

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall Panel 2 

St Michael’s Church, Garston.

We currently have no further information on George Ernest Edwards, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.