15732 PRIVATE EDWARD WILLIAM WATSON
‘B’ COMPANY 7TH (SERVICE) BATTALION
SUFFOLK REGIMENT
KILLED IN ACTION
21ST SEPTEMBER 1915
AGE 17 YEARS
The first of the two Watson boys to die during World War One was Edward, also known as Hedley. He was the second child of John and Martha (née Lankester), who, at the time of their son’s birth during the last quarter of 1898, were living in Pound Street, Halesworth (later London Road). In the early months of 1909, John aged forty-seven and an ex-soldier, passed away. This may have been the reason for Martha and her then seven children moving into the so-called ‘Slums’ of the town, Chediston Street, as the Halesworth Times newspaper of 29th March 1910 reported that she had been called to the Courthouse as a witness in regard to the suicide of Jacob Warne, aged sixty-one, who had hanged himself at his home at 22, Chediston Street. Martha, living opposite him, had been one of the last people to see him alive. By the time of the 1911 census, as has also been related in his younger brother’s Charley story, their mother must have become totally destitute as she had to place herself and six of her children under the care of the Guardians of the Blything Union, who would have then placed them in the Blythburgh Workhouse at Bulcamp where, on the census records, they are listed as Inmates, with the youngest child Samuel being just three months old!!!
At the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, having spent the previous few years of his young life under the strict regime of the Blythburgh Workhouse, Edward would have well understood that the life of a soldier would not be anything that he could not adjust to. Being under the legal age for enlistment, he did not attempt to sign on for army service in Halesworth, where he would have been known. Instead, he travelled to the County town of Ipswich, possibly in late November, where he ‘Took the King’s Shilling’ at the age of sixteen years by enlisting to serve as 15732, a Private soldier in the Suffolk Regiment. On his surviving service records, it appears that, rather than entering his mothers’ details as being his next of kin, he had entered his older sister Isabella as the person to be informed in the event of his being wounded or killed. This may have been for two reasons: firstly, if his mother found out where he had gone and for what reason, she could have claimed him back for being underage, as many parents had done in the early months of the war when their young sons had joined up in search of adventure. Another possible reason might have been to help his sister with an allotment of a percentage of his pay. In 1910 she had married Harry Ruthven Barber, a fisherman from nearby Southwold, who had died on 8th October 1914, his death at the age of twenty-nine being reported in the Halesworth Times of 30th October.
After his enlistment, Edward was posted to join the New Army battalion of the 7th (Service) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, which had been formed at Bury St Edmunds on 26th August 1914. After eleven months of training, they crossed to France as a complete battalion, landing at Boulogne on 30th May 1915, now as part of the 12th (Eastern) Division. Prior to this, many of their original recruits had been sent out to the front line as casualty replacements for the Regular and Territorial Suffolk Battalions who had been in the firing line for several months. Having not enlisted until the later months of 1914, it is possible that Edward had not completed his basic training when his battalion departed for the continent but just two months later, on 30th July, he began the journey to join his comrades, who were at that time in the area of Poleysteert (known as Plugstreet by the British Tommies) in Belgium. On his arrival Edward was allocated to join the 7th Suffolks ‘B’ Company. Here he may also have heard of the death of another Halesworth man, Lieutenant George Frost (see his story) who had died just two weeks before he arrived, while serving as the 7th Suffolks’ Bombing Officer. On researching the details in the battalion’s war diary for the period when Edward served with them, it appears that they had a comparatively quiet time, serving alternatively with their partners of the 9th Battalion, Essex Regiment in the front line. On 9th September they once again relieved the men of the 9th Essex who would have then returned to the rear to rest and continue to train, but always being prepared to reinforce the firing line in the event of a major German attack developing. On 21st September, having once again completed their twelve days of front-line duty, the 7th Suffolks were due to be replaced by the 9th Essex, with the relief beginning at 9pm. Within half an hour, the changeover had been completed. It was during this day that young Edward lost his life. Regrettably there was no mention in the battalion’s war diary as to the circumstances of his death. A further check of the ‘Soldiers Who Had Died in the Great War’ archives show that he was the only member of the 7th Suffolks to die on that day. After his death Edward was laid to rest in the Gunners Farm Military Cemetery, Belgium. This cemetery had been first laid out in July 1915 by men of the 7th Suffolks and 9th Essex Battalions.
The announcement of Edward’s death was placed by his grandmother, Charlotte Lankaster of 77, Chediston Street, in the town’s newspaper on 28th September 1915. As reported in his younger brother’s Charley’s story, by the war’s end Martha had moved into the small cottage at 76, Chediston Street, next door to her mother.
On 14th February 1916 Isabella, having been nominated as Edward’s next of kin, received the first of two gratuity payments that would be awarded for the loss of her brother, in the amount of £3.4s.3d (£3.21p). By the time that she received the second payment of £3.0s.0d (£3.00p) in August 1919, she was living with her second husband, Walter Griffin, at Hoddeson in Hertfordshire. It appears that they had met in Southwold when Walter was serving in the Hertfordshire Regiment, then part of the East Anglian coastal defence force. Whether a war pension was paid to either his sister or mother no evidence could be found.
It is not known which, if any, of his relatives would go on to claim Edward’s medal entitlement of the 1915 Star medal trio, with his named bronze memorial plaque and scroll. If so the location of these is not known.
This is a rare example of a card that would have been
proudly displayed in the homes of families who had loved
ones serving in the armed forces.