Born in 1898 at Woodford, son of Thomas Charles (Head Attendant at L.C.C. Asylum - Claybury Hospital) and Alice Edwards. 1901: With his family at 3 Maybank Gardens, Maybank Road, South Woodford. 1911: A Scholar with his family at 5 Grand View, Crescent Road, South Woodford. His parents later moved to 7 Garden Croft, Weston Rhyn, Oswestry, and his Army record also gives Oswestry as his place of residence.
He enlisted at Stratford, initially becoming Private 13865 in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, before transferring to the Wiltshire Regiment and serving with them in the Balkans.
5 Wiltshire left Avonmouth for Gallipoli on 1st July 1915, landing at Cape Helles on 17th July 1915. They were moved to Anzac Cove on 4th August 1915, and suffered heavy casualties in a Turkish attack on 10th August 1915. A further move took the Battalion to Suvla Bay.
It appears Emlyn Edwards may have been a late victim of the sudden flood and freeze at the end of November 1915, which caused wholesale casualties among British forces. The cause of his death in a Military Hospital in Malta was given as “Frostbite.”
He is also remembered on the Weston Rhyn War Memorial.
Research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian
Sources:
Ancestry.com