Born in 1886, Edgar Herbert Mertens was the son of Sarah Ann Mertens and John Mertens, a cargo superintendent. He attended Coopers Company School in Bow from 1898 to 1900 and became an Assistant Manager in a printer’s firm. In 1911, Edgar was living as a boarder at 32 Murchison Road, Leytonstone, Essex, with his sister. He married Gertrude Rosetta Adams on 4th July 1914 at St Mary’s Church in Ilford. According to his service records, in 1915 Edgar was living with his wife Gertrude Rosetta Adams at 149 Hampton Road, Ilford.
Edgar enlisted and served in the London Regiment 28th (County of London) Battalion (Artist's Rifles).
On the 31st July 1917 the Third Battle of Ypres was launched. The ground all around the British attackers quickly turned into a quagmire. Conditions were so bad that men and horses simply disappeared into the water-filled craters. The cost to both sides in human casualties was immense at between 200,000 and 400,000 men killed, missing or wounded. Edgar Mertens survived the horrors of the early battle only to be killed as he advanced across this horrific landscape in the final push. He died on the 30th October 1917, aged 31.
Edgar’s body was not identified but he is remembered in Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium.
Some information / extracts have been reproduced with kind permission of Karen Pack from her book ‘Coopers’ Boys & Coborn Girls: Their Part in the Great War’ © Karen Pack, 2015
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
Commonwealth War Graves Commission