Name
Edwin Thorn (MM)
1893
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
23/10/1918
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
4/7136
Bedfordshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 /15 Star, British War and Victory medals
Military Medal and Bar
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HIGHLAND CEMETERY, LE CATEAU
II. B. 12.
France
Headstone Inscription
HE DID HIS DUTY NOBLY HE OBEYED HIS COUNTRY'S CALL AT REST
UK & Other Memorials
Hemel Hempstead Town Memorial, Leverstock Green Village Memorial, Leverstock Green Village School Memorial
Pre War
Edwin Thorn was born in Hemel Hempstead, Herts in 1893, the son and 7th child of Amy and Walter Thorn and one of eleven children. His mother died in 1896 after the birth of his youngest brother William. After her death, his father's employer Matthew Leno of Cox Pond Farm placed an advertisement in the Hemel Gazette seeking a nurse for the new baby and a fund which was set up to help the family eventually grew to £10 from generous donations. (N.B. Baby William was living with his aunt and uncle Edwin and Elizabeth Thorn at Abbey Mill Cottage, St Albans on 1901 Census.)
On the 1901 Census, he was living with his widowed father and siblings at Little Cox Pond Farm, Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead where his father was a cattleman on the farm. Edwin was educated at Leverstock Green School and left school in about 1906 when he found work as a gardener, which remained his occupation until enlistment.
On the 1911 Census Edwin was living with his father, brother Edward and sister Minnie at 6 Bennetts Road, Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead when he was working as a domestic gardener.
Wartime Service
Edwin enlisted almost as soon as war was declared and travelled to St Albans were he joined the Bedfordshire Regiment. He completed three months basic training and arrived in France on 3 December 1914, being posted to the 1st Battalion. After landing at Boulogne he travelled to Base Camp at Bailleul before joining his unit at Wulvergham in Belgium on 8 December. He was then transferred to the 2nd Battalion and trained as a Lewis gun operator.
He was awarded the Military Medal twice for bravery. The first occasion was at Messines Ridge on 7 June 1917 when he stuck to his post after being buried three times (and losing five of his comrades) until reinforcements were sent, when he was only 20 yards from the German front line. The second was received in August 1918 although the circumstances of that award are not known.
He served for almost the entire war but was killed in action 18 days before the Armistice, during an attack on an enemy position north east of Le Cateau near the village of Forest on 23 October 1918, aged 25. He was originally buried at Richemont Mill, with nine others from the 2nd Battalion who were 'concentrated' after the war to the Highland Cemetery at Le Cateau. France.
Additional Information
His father, Mr W Thorn, 5 Bennett’s End, Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead, ordered his headstone inscription: "HE DID HIS DUTY NOBLY HE OBEYED HIS COUNTRY'S CALL AT REST". His father received a war gratuity of £19 10s and pay owing of £13 14s 2d. The family paid 13s 5d for the engraving on the CWGC headstone. Edwin's brothers Herbert, Ernest and William also served in the war and survived. All five of his brothers-in-law also served and survived.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild, google.com/site/leverstockgreenwarmemorial, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk, www.hemelatwar.org., www.hemelheroes.com., www.bedfordregiment.org.uk
