George Frederick Edwards

A Private with the 2/4th Battalion, George died on 5th of November 1917 at the age of 25. 

George was born at Lowestoft on 13 May 1892, a son of James and Sarah Edwards. By 1896 his family were living at 44 Stanley Street, and this was still the family home in 1911, when George worked as a grocer’s assistant. Subsequently George moved to Chatham.

George enlisted in the Army at Gillingham. He joined The Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), service number 3965. He was posted to the 2/4th Battalion in Egypt. Around March 1917 he was renumbered 201316. By November 1917 he was a member of the Lewis Gun Section in D Company.

The 2/4th Battalion were part of the 53rd (Welsh) Division. Between 3 and 7 November 1917 the units of the 53rd Division were involved in the capture of Tell Khuweilfe, north of Beersheba, part of the Third Battle of Gaza. Fifty-four men of the battalion were killed on 4 November. George was reported missing, and his death was presumed to have occurred on 5 November. 

Gorge’s brother William served with the Royal Irish Rifles and died in 1917. His sister-in-law, Blanche, died in an air raid in 1942.