Name
Edwin Potten
3 July 1890
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Marlowes Methodist Church War Memorial, Hemel Hempstead (*1)
Pre War
Edwin Potten was born in Great Gaddesden on 3 July 1890, the son of William and Elizabeth Potten and one of seven children. He was baptised there on 12 October 1890.
On the 1891 Census the family were living in Great Gaddesden where his father was working as an agricultural labourer. They had moved to 27 Alma Road, Hemel Hempstead in 1901, when his father was working as a Carter at the Iron Foundry. They were living at 11 Cemetery Hill, Hemel Hempstead in 1911 and Edwin was working as a Notepaper Finisher at the Paper Mill. (John Dickinson & Co at Apsley Mills).
He married Florence Dew in 1915 and they had a daughter Kathleen the following year.
On the 1939 Register he was living at 17 Cemmaes Court Road, Hemel Hempstead and working as a Paper, Printing and Stationery Manager/Paper Cutter. It was also noted that he was an ARP Auxiliary Fireman at Apsley Mills. He died in 1972, aged 81.
(Brother to Bertram and William Potten who are also named on the Marlowes Methodist Church Memorial as survivors of the war.)
Wartime Service
Naval records indicate that he enlisted into the Royal Navy and served from 21 June 1916 at the shore establishment of President II. (Presumably alongside his brother William who served from the following day, 22 June 1916). It is assumed he was with the Royal Naval Air Service as his rating is ACM II rising to ACM I (ACM =Aircraftman).
Additional Information
*1 Marlowes Methodist Church was one of the five churches that merged in 2006 to form Hemel Hempstead Methodist Church. The Marlowes Methodist Church building was built in 1890 and used regularly from then until 2006 and then again as the main Hemel Hempstead Methodist Church building from May 2012 until it finally closed in March 2014. The war memorial was removed from the building before demolition and passed to the local British Legion. The war memorial is unusual in that it names those who returned safely as well as those who died.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
mymethodisthistory.org.uk
