Name
Edwin Parker
1881
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
03/10/1918
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
81364
Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment)
1st/5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RAMICOURT BRITISH CEMETERY
A. 8.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Hitchin memorials
Pre War
Edwin was born in 1881 in Hitchin and christened on 25 September 1881 in Holy Savior Church, Hitchin . His parents were Alfred and Sarah Parker (née Turner) who had married on 24 December 1868 in Holy Savior Church, Hitchin.
In the 1881 census, before Edwin’s birth, Alfred (34) and Sarah (34) were living in Radcliffe Road, Hitchin, with Alfred working as a general labourer.
We believe that Alfred died in 1886, leaving Sarah a widow with one child, Edwin.
In 1891 Sarah and her son, Edwin (9), were living at 39 Radcliffe Road, Hitchin. She was working as a laundress and had taken in two lodgers, Richard W Chandler (22) a florist and Samuel Jackson (25) a police constable.
In 1901 Edwin Parker was 19, working as a shoe sole rounder, and boarding with William and Mary Woods at 31 West Holme Street, Leicester, Leicestershire.
Edwin married Emma Allen Pugh (b 27/10/1880) in 1905 in Leicestershire.
By 1911 Edwin (29) and Emma (31) were living at 187 Western Road, Leicester, Leicestershire . They were working as a press man boot trade and a machinist in the boot trade respectively. The census recorded they had been married for 5 years with no children.
The Soldiers Died In The Great War database records that he was born in Hitchin, Herts. and he enlisted in Leicester.
Wartime Service
We know little of his service at present other that he did not go overseas until at least 1916 and that he must have been listed as missing as his pension record suggests that his death was not officially accepted until 25 April 1919. This would have been presumed to be on or since 3 October 1918.
The Battalion war diary entry for the date of his death records that his Battalion were part of an attack made by the 32nd Division in the area of Lahoucourt. They had the Anzacs on the left and a French Corps to their right. Casualties listed for the period 3rd October to 17th were: Killed: 2 Officers and 31 ORs, wounded 10 Officers and 182 ORs – another 4 remained at their post, missing 20 ORs. Edwin was almost certainly one of the latter.
The fact that he has a grave suggests that his body was found and identified after the war ended.
Additional Information
After his death £20 9s 3d pay owing was authorised to go to his widow, Emma, on 15 July 1919.
His pension cards record Emma Allen Parker as his widow and next of kin, living at 10 Dundee Street, St James End, Northampton, Hitchin. She was awarded a grant of £5 on 17 May 1919 and then a pension of 13s 9d a week from 16 June 1919.
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild
