Edmund Roy Withers
Rank: Private
Regiment: 1st Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company
Parents: Mr & Mrs E H Withers
Address: 45 Springfield Road, St Leonards
Other Info: Killed in action at Ypres on 16th June 1915. According to CWGC, Edmund is remembered at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial on panel 9.
Published: July 1915 in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer
Please use the comments box below if you can provide more information about this person.
View Comments (2)
This man was born i17 August 1891 in Hastings. He was however baptised at a Methodist church at Newport, Isle of Wight on the 24 September 1891 to parents Edmund Augustus Withers and Emmeline Annie, when their address was given as St Leonards. His parents were both born in the Isle of Wight.
In the 1891 census the family were at 10 Carisbrooke Road, St Leonards, where his father was an upholsterer's manager. In the 1901 census they were in Winchester, where his father was an upholsterer's manager.
In the 1911 census he was a boarder, assistant in a furnishing shop, at 13 Calverley Park Crescent, Tunbridge Wells. His parents were at 23 London Road, St Leonards, where the father was manager of an upholsterer's (a worker, so not the owner). Three children had been born to the marriage, and his brother and sister were in the household.
When he joined the army, 28 August 1914, at Armoury House, Finsbury, his address was 13 St Ann Terrace, St John's Wood. His next of kin was given as Mrs R. Withers, Black Hall Farm, St Bride's Major, Bridgend [Glamorgan].
[Father] E.A. Withers signed for his Victory and War medals, 8 March 1922. A sheet in his army papers says his widow is Rose Withers, address unknown, and says that his parents, brother and sister were all at 67 Sedlescombe Road South, St Leonards. This is dated 4 April 1919 and is signed by his father.
Edmund Roy Withers had married Rose Gibson in the district of Bridgend, as registered in the September quarter of 1914.
His mother died in 1923 in Hastings. His father died in 1937 in Hastings.
Thank you for this information Stephen, an interesting read as always. Kind Regards. Kieron