Edmund Douglas Noel

Rank 
Private
Regiment 
Essex Regiment
Date of death 
27 March 1920
Age of death 
32
Address 
Briarwood
Grove Hill
South Woodford
Woodford
E18 2JS
Address source 
1911 Census
Cemetery / Memorial 
United Kingdom
Biography 

Edmund Douglas Noel was born in Woodford in 1887 to William, a solicitor’s clerk, and Edith Noel. Edmund had two older brothers, Henry and Alfred.

Edmund lived most of his life in the family home of Briarwood, Grove Hill, Woodford. In 1911, he was 23 and working as a shipping clerk. At this time, he lived with his parents and middle brother, Alfred, Henry having already left home.

During the war, Edmund joined the Royal Fusiliers as a Private. He survived the war but died on the 27th March 1920 in Bryn Llywn, Cynwyd, Wales. The cause of death is not known but it was presumably war-related since his name appears on the Bancroft War Memorial.

Research by Redbridge Museum

Sources:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Ancestry.com

Further research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian

Born in 1887 at Woodford, youngest son of William James (Solicitors Clerk) and Edith Jane Noel. 1891: With his family at “Sunny Side” Grove Hill, South Woodford. 1901: A Scholar at Bancroft’s living with his family at “Briarwood” Grove Hill, South Woodford. 1911: A Shipping Clerk with his parents and older brother Alfred still at “Briarwood.”  For some years he was Scoutmaster to the 4th West Ham Scout Troop.

He enlisted on 11th December 1915 under the Derby Scheme, becoming Private 26748 of the 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment. He was wounded in action with them on the Somme during 7-1916. Precise details of his wounding are not known, but the war diary conveys the severity of German resistance during the first day of battle on 1th July 1916:

At 8.36 a.m. A and D Companies advanced from their assembly trenches and immediately came under very heavy machine gun fire and artillery barrage. At about 9.30 a.m. the 12th Brigade were holding a line about 50 yards short of the German 2nd line and some parties had forced their way through and got as far as Pendant Copse. The main line tried to consolidate themselves in the line of craters but this work was practically impossible owing to the intense machine gun fire brought to bear on them from the direction of Serre on the left flank and Beaumont Hamel on the right. Later, a screen of bombers advanced against them and the Brigade on the left retiring left their left flank in the air. About 4 p.m. the line was forced to retire to the German front line where a small body consisting chiefly of Seaforths, Essex and Warwicks with Capt A G de la Mare and 2nd Lt J G Ward of the Essex made a long stand in the Quadrilateral until 1.0 a.m. on the 2nd when they were relieved by the Royal Irish Fusiliers. The fighting in the Quadrilateral was entirely by bombing and our men were hampered by an inadequate supply of bombs, although they used the bombs found in the German trenches. At one time our heavy artillery also began to shell the Quadrilateral but was stopped before doing any harm by means of an electric lamp found by a signaller. Communication was also kept with our own front line by means of visual signalling and in this way bombs were asked for but the difficulty of getting them across No Man’s Land through the fire was very great. Casualties: 22 Officers and about 400 other ranks.

The wounds put him into hospital for nine months and left him unfit for further active service. He was transferred to the Labour Corps, serving as Private 207333 in 600th Home Service Emp. Coy until medically discharged on 22th May 1918 with a silver “wounds” badge. He continued to suffer ill health as a result of his wounds, and on 27th March 1920 he died of septic poisoning in a nursing home at Bryn Llyn, Cynwyd, Merionethshire.

When reporting his death, The Bancroftian suggested he was wounded with 28 London Regiment - The Artists Rifles. There is no mention of such an attachment in surviving Army records, and it is unclear whether he was a member of that Battalion.

Sources:

Ancestry

War Diary

The Bancroftian

For more information on this individual please see The Old Bancroftian website.