BORN HULL 1891. ORIGINAL HULL PAL. 1918 VOTERS ADDRESS. LISTED ON ST VINCENT’S CHURCH MEMORIAL PLAQUE, QUEENS ROAD, HULL AS CHARLES J EDWARDS.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE CHARLES SYDNEY EDWARDS 12/1399. Born in July 1891, the youngest of three children, Charles lost his mother and father quite young and the 1911 Census finds him lodging at 31 St Pauls Street, Hull where he paid the rent working as a Mantle Fitter. When war came Charles was a Seaman, but he swapped the high seas for terra firma and enlisted to fight for King and Country on 6th January 1915 joining the fledgling 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment and serving with them through Egypt, the Somme and Oppy Wood before being transferred to the 10th Battalion when they merged in February 1918. He was killed in action on 29th September 1918 during the attack on Ploegsteert Wood. It is such a shame to write up these Original Pals who endured so much over so long only to fall at the final hurdle just a few short weeks from the end of the war. Charles was hastily buried on the battle field before being exhumed after the Armistice and buried at Bedford House Cemetery Enclosure No.4; he was 27 years old.
