Wellington Remembers 1914–1918

026 266639 Private Edward Clarke Monmouthshire Born on 31 July 1883 in Greenfi eld, Yorkshire Lived at 57 Mill Bank, Wellington, Killed in action on 12 April 1918 aged 35 in Remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial; panel 10

His story

Edward was born in 1883. His father, William, a tailor from Malmesbury, Wiltshire, and his mother, Ellen, from Hartlebury, Worcestershire, had married in 1879 and moved around the country before settling in Wellington in about 1885. Their four children were born in four diff erent places. Their home in Wellington was 57 Mill Bank, four houses along from the Green Man public house and all six were listed as living there in the 1891 census. By 1901, two years after the death of his father, Edward was described as a draper’s apprentice, living with his widowed mother, younger sister Ellen and an elderly female lodger. Ten years later, Edward was listed in the census as an upholsterer, working for a furniture manufacturer; at this time Mill Bank he was living alone with his mother, their house having been renumbered to 25 Mill Bank. He might possibly have worked for ‘H . Marshall, Mill Bank’ who was listed in the 1913 Wellington Directory as an ‘upholsterer, furniture dealer manufacturer.’ The following year, in May 1912, Edward, at the age of 28, married Eliza Osborne of Madeley. They lived at 25 Mill Bank and over the next three years had three children: Ellen, James William Edward and Richard Joseph. Following the extension of the Military Service Act to married men in May 1916, Edward enlisted in the army at Wellington and was drafted into the 1/2nd of the Monmouthshire Regiment, based at Pontypool. At this time the battalion had just transferred as a battalion to the 29th Division. Edward’s service records have not been found. Being part of a pioneer battalion would have involved a great deal of heavy, exhausting, physical work.

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In August 1916 the battalion dug the excavations for ‘elephant dug-outs’, a form of large shelter, along the Menin Road. The Royal Engineers constructed the building which the pioneers then covered with a bursting course and a shock absorbing course of material. Other work carried out by the battalion included: • Consolidation work building new trenches, often to link captured German trenches to the British system or filling in unwanted excavations. • Up-keep of existing trenches, particularly after shelling. This could include improving drainage, revetting, lifting and relaying duckboards, providing passing places in the trench and digging fire steps. • Maintaining the roads, using timber to lay a corduroy road, making and laying fascines (a bundle of sticks) to support boggy ground, collecting and breaking bricks from bombed out buildings to make good the damage done by the almost never ending traffic. In some cases the roads were so waterlogged that scoops were more effective than shovels to remove the mud. • Improving camp facilities and building horse stands and stables. • Carrying supplies including ammunition from the dumps to the place required. • Burying cables 6’ deep. • Digging experiments to determine the most effective use of manpower. • Filling shell holes. • Making barbed wire entanglements and clearing unwanted wire. • Building canal causeways and light railways. During the winter months snow and frost made the work even tougher. In February 1917 the war diary reports: ‘In about four places frozen corpses were found at the bottom of the trench and the full depth could not be obtained.’ April 1917 saw the battalion move to Arras with orders to clear the Arras–Cambrai road and make it good for horse transport. On 10 April orders were ‘to dig out (8) tanks which had been ditched and bogged down during the operation of the previous day ’. During the first two weeks of November the battalion undertook an extended march covering about 14 miles per day. The entire march took them from Proven, Belgium to Equancourt, France (about 87 miles) and for the duration of the march they were never more than 15 miles from the front. It was here that the battalion were first involved in an actual attack, taking and holding trenches; having moved again, they twice held bridge head defences at Marcoing. 1918 saw a return to the Ypres area. A couple of months passed carrying out the usual work, with a new job of building strong points. In April the battalion was relieved and moved to St Jan Ter Bizien, west of Poperinghe, but the next move to St Pol did not occur as ‘owing to a sudden enemy advance these orders were cancelled & orders issued for the Battalion to be ready to move with the 88th Brigade at one hour’s notice, destination unknown.’ Edward turned out to be among the 90% of the battalion sent to La Creche. On 11 April ‘about mid-day the Batt received orders to move forward immediately and take up a position … which was considered of vital importance …. The Batt was to hold on to the line at all costs . Under very trying conditions the line was held all night ’.

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On 12 April with additional support from 1st Newfoundland Regiment the line was held until 4pm when ‘the enemy came in on the fl anks … This day proved to be a rare/ severe one for the Batt & the casualties were very heavy. During the morning the enemy bombarded heavily with trench mortars and used machine guns to a large extent. 75 men killed or wounded…. Then when the enemy came in on the fl anks there were about 400 men absolutely cut off – these people had been told to hold the positions at all costs … but the situation became an impossible one ’. Edward was one of the men reported ‘missing presumed dead’ on that day. His body was never recovered but he is remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial. In 1919/20, his widow received his British War Medal and Victory Medal, together with a memorial plaque, ‘dead man’s penny’, scroll, and a letter from the King. Following the loss of her husband, soon after The Ploegsteert Memorial the end of the war Eliza and her children left Wellington and moved closer to her relatives in Madeley. Two of her sisters and their families lived at Aqueduct, and Eliza eventually took up residence at 16 Aqueduct Road. The war gratuity of £8/10 was paid to his widow Eliza. Clearly, bringing up a young family on her war widow’s pension would have been a struggle, but the family overcame the diffi culties. One can only imagine Eliza’s horror when her two sons were called up to fi ght in another war in 1939, dreading a repeat of her earlier loss. Fortunately, after service in the Middle East and Burma, they both survived and returned home in 1945. Eliza herself sadly died two years later, aged 63.

Acknowledgements: Photo of Mill Bank courtesy of Frost Digital Collection. Neil Clarke, Grandson, for family story, Memorial photo and use of certifi cates.

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