Name
Edgar John Toms
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/06/1918
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Sapper
358237
Royal Engineers
5th Field Survey Company
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ANNOIS COMMUNAL CEMETERY
I. B. 6.
France
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green
All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
Pre War
Before the war Edgar was a civil service clerk. He was born on 17 April 1898 and christened at Croxley Green on 5 June. He lived with his parents, William and Lizzie Toms at Hollybank, Yorke Road, Croxley Green. His father worked at Croxley Mills. After the war the Army paid William £26 16s 1d, including a war gratuity of £11.
Recorded as enlisting in Westminster, London.
Wartime Service
Previously Private 2820 Royal Fusiliers. Transferred to Royal Sussex Regiment 16827 June 1917. Transferred to Royal Engineers January 1918.
Sapper Edgar John Toms enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers on 5 June 1916 at the age of 18. He was posted to the front in the Royal Sussex Regiment in May 1917 and wounded in the right arm shortly afterwards on 12 July. He retrained as an artillery observer, becoming a first class signaller on 6 November, and was posted on 12 January 1918 to the 24th Observation Group of the 5th Field Survey Company of the Royal Engineers.
On 21 March 1918, when the German Spring Offensive began, Edgar was posted just behind the front line at Fort Vendeuil near St Quentin. The position was overrun and he was taken prisoner.
He died of dysentery in the prisoner-of-war camp at Flavy-le-Martel on 3 June 1918. It took until January 1919 for his family to learn of his death. See Croxley Green in the First World War for more details.
He is buried at Annois Communal Cemetery along with a number of other men who died at Flavy-le-Martel.
Acknowledgments
Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
