Edwin Cyril Challoner

Rank 
Private
Regiment 
Grenadier Guards
Date of death 
11 March 1916
Age of death 
23
Cemetery / Memorial 
France
Biography 

Born on 16th March 1892 at Chadwell Heath, son of Edwin (Stock Jobbers Clerk) and Hylda Challoner. The family home at that time was at Grosvenor Villas, Chadwell Heath. 1901: The family was at “St Hilary” 12 Cornwallis Gardens, Hastings, Sussex. His father died 8th May 1908, while they were living at Woodford Green. By 1911 his mother was at “Glen Aldyn” Eastwood Road, South Woodford, but Edwin does not appear in the Census entry. His mother later lived at 37 Coventry Road, Ilford.

He enlisted at St Paul’s Churchyard, and after training went to France with 3 Grenadier Guards on 26th July 1915. On 5th March 1916 the Battalion left the front line at Poperinghe about 7 miles west of Ypres, and went to Camp Beaumaris near Calais, where it remained until 18th March 1916. The Regimental History records that while there an “unfortunate bombing accident occurred.” 4th Chapter Bombers (grenade throwers) were practicing under the direction of Lt L Hermon-Hodge behind a thick sandbag wall when a grenade exploded prematurely on leaving the throwers hand. 5 men were killed and 16 wounded. Lt Hermon-Hodge received fragments of the bomb in his right arm.

Edwin Challoner died from the wounds accidently received during this incident.

X/R: Douglas George Challoner is Edwin's brother.

Research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian

Principal Sources:

Ancestry.com

The Grenadier Guards in the Great War