Name
Edwin Kenneth Bonsey
10 Oct 1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/07/1918
27
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Royal Garrison Artillery
99th Siege Battery
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
AIRE COMMUNAL CEMETERY
Plot III, Row G, Grave 13.
France
Headstone Inscription
BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Borough Roll of Honour, Letchworth Town Memorial, Bishop's Stortford College Chapel Memorial, Bishop's Stortford, Oxford University Roll of Service, Royal Artillery War Commemoration Book
Pre War
Edwin was born on the 10th October 1890 in Hankow, China, the son of Reverend Arthur and Marianne Bonsey, who were both English missionary’s.
His parents had married 10 November 1884 at the Cathedral of Holy Trinity, Shanghai, China. Marianne died 9 October 1910 in Hankow aged 53; Arthur died 2 December 1942 in Oxford aged 84.
Edwin was educated at Bishop’s Stortford, Herts, College and at Oxford University.
On the 1891 Census, he is proving elusive (probably still in China).
The Boxer Uprisings in the Chinese countryside during 1900, caused by a combination of socio-economic disaster, governmental weakness and unwanted foreign intervention through missionaries and trade, left large tracts of the population desperate. The Boxer groups displayed a hatred for foreigners and their religion, and this was exacerbated by the often confrontational behaviour of missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity.
The rapid events of 1900 occurred within an environment of increased animosity towards foreign Christians and their native counterparts. By May this had reached a high level resulting in the killing of four French and Belgian railway engineers on 31 May and of two missionaries on 1 June. Fearing for their lives, Marianne Bonsey left Shanghai with her four children, Arthur Wilford (born 1885), Ethel (born 1888), Edwin (born 1890) and Olive (1900), arriving at Southampton on the 19th July 1900. The family moved to a private hotel in Bishop Stortford.
On the 1901 Census, Edwin was a boarder in Bishop’s Stortford, at Mrs Clarkson’s Private Hotel with his mother, Walter (born 1885) and Olive (born 1900).
On the 1911 Census, an undergraduate at Oxford University aged 20, he was a visitor in Letchworth, Herts, with his brother Arthur Wilford, a theological student at the home Ada May Colebrook, 361, Norton Way, Letchworth.
Before the war he was an articled clerk with G O Jones of Liverpool.
Edwin’s father seems to have remained in China for over 40 years becoming Principal of Griffiths John (London Missionary Society), Hanchow.
Wartime Service
On the 3rd February 1916 Edwin, by now a Solicitors Clerk, attested at Lincoln’s Inn, London into the Inns Of Court O.T.C. A Short Service (Duration of the War with the Colours and in the Army Reserve), he was aged 25, 5’9½” tall, next of kin his father of Hankow, China.
He became Private 9266 6th Company, Inns of Court O.T.C., and appointed unpaid Lance-Corporal 7 October 1916. The he was posted to a Royal Artillery Officer Cadet School, St John’s Wood, London N.W. 26 October 1916. Commissioned in the Officer Cadet Artillery Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, and then discharged on appointment to a commission as Second Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery 18 February 1917, gazetted 27 February 1917, and posted 8 April to 99th Siege Battery at Arras.7.
It was not until the 29th May 1918 that he joined the 99th Siege Battery, serving with them for just four weeks.
On the 25th June Edwin was caught in a gas attack and was taken to No. 39 Stationary Hospital, where he died from the effects of his injuries on the 2nd July. He is buried in the Aire Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.
Additional Information
There is an article about and a Death announcement for Edwin in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 13 July 1918. He has two entries in the National Probate Calendar.
Acknowledgments
Neil Cooper
Dan Hill, Janet Capstick, Paul Johnson, Jonty Wild. Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
