Soissons Memorial
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
Joseph Edward Edwards was born during the 4th quarter (Oct/Nov/Dec) 1892 at Gateshead, County Durham. His father was born at Houghton-le-Spring in 1853 and married for the first time at South Shields in 1877 to Ann Thompson of Sunderland with whom he had 7 known children 5 sons and 2 daughters. Ann died aged 36 years at Gateshead in 1887, he remarried in 1888 to Joseph Edward’s birth mother Ann Isabella Bell born 1864 at Felling, Gateshead. Joseph Edward was the eldest of 3 surviving sons and 2 daughters, 2 of his siblings died in infancy. His father Thomas Edward was employed as a stone quarry engineer at Heworth in 1881 and by 1891 had moved from the address of Heworth Lanes to Water Mill Cottages and back to High Heworth Lanes by 1901. Thomas Edward and his sons from his first marriage were all employed, Thomas and his son James (23) as quantity engine-men, Nathaniel (20) was a stone quarryman, Thomas Jnr (16) and John (15) were both screeners at the colliery. By 1911 all the male members of the family including Joseph Edward now 18 years old were employed as stone machine-men at the stone quarry near Heworth, his full blood sister Julia (20) helped her mother run the household whilst Eleanor (12), Francis (10) and Lancelot (7) were scholars.
On the outbreak of war Joseph Edward Edwards enlisted at Newcastle upon Tyne, assigned as Corporal 4493 to the Northumberland Fusiliers, later transferred as 265993 to the 1st/6th Battalion (Territorials). The main body of the battalion departed for the Western Front in April 1915 to join the 149th Brigade, 50th Northumbrian Division, however Corporal Edwards did not join them until 1916 where they participated during the Battles of the Somme, the Arras Offensive, April 9th-May 16th 1917 where they captured Wancourt Ridge and they fought during the Battle of Passchendaele, July 31st-November 10th 1917. During 1918 they again returned to the Somme seeing action at the Battle of the Lys and Hindenburg Line. The Hindenburg Line was built by the Germans during the winter of 1916/1917 on the Western Front from Arras to Laffaux near Soissons and was contested by the Allies over a period of three and a half years, as of 1914, at the cost of 15,000 casualties.
During his service Corporal Edwards was awarded the Military Medal for bravery on land.
Corporal 265993 Joseph Edward Edwards M.M. Northumberland Fusiliers is presumed to have died May 27th 1918, his sacrifice is recorded as one of the 3,887 names of British soldiers inscribed on the Soissons Memorial, Aisne, France, commemorating those who were killed in the area from May to August 1918 and who have no known grave. Corporal Edwards was 26 years old and single.
His father Thomas Edward Edwards received all monies due to him and his awards of the Military Medal, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.
Joseph Edward Edwards is remembered at Heworth on H92.03
