{"product_id":"war-medal-gs-41-cpl-w-f-edwards-r-w-kent-r-d-o-w-29-1-16","title":"War medal; GS-41 CPL.W.F.EDWARDS R.W.KENT.R who D.O.W 29\/1\/16","description":"\u003cp\u003eCorporal William F EDWARDS GS\/41 \u003cspan\u003e The Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdwards served with the 6th Battalion, The Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), as a corporal. He held the standard trio, the 1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, confirming service in a theatre of war before the end of 1915. His entry into France is dated 1 June 1915. The remarks column carries three words that end the story: died of wounds, 29 January 1916.\u003cbr\u003eThe Royal West Kent Regiment ran two separate numbering series once the war began. Men who signed on as career soldiers, for the regular seven-years-with-the-colours terms, were given numbers prefixed L\/. Men who volunteered for the duration of the war only, for “General Service”, were given numbers from a fresh series starting at 1, prefixed G\/ or GS\/.\u003cbr\u003eA number as low as 41 places Edwards right at the front of that queue. Comparable Royal West Kent service numbers survive in the war graves record in the low hundreds for men who enlisted within the battalion’s first weeks. GS\/41 puts Edwards among the first few dozen men through the depot door, which means he did not wait to be called up, did not wait for conscription that was still two years away, and did not wait to see how the war was going. He walked into Maidstone at the very outset.\u003cbr\u003eThe battalion he joined\u003cbr\u003eThe 6th (Service) Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment, was formed at Maidstone on 14 August 1914, ten days after Britain declared war, as part of Kitchener’s first New Army and the 37th Brigade of the 12th (Eastern) Division. From Maidstone the battalion moved to Colchester, then Purfleet, then billets at Hythe over the winter, then Aldershot in February 1915 for final training. On 1 June 1915 it landed at Boulogne, exactly the date recorded on Edwards’ card.\u003cbr\u003eEdwards trained with his battalion for nine or ten months before it was judged ready for France, which was the normal gestation period for a New Army unit built from nothing. He was not a pre-war regular and not a Territorial. He was a civilian who volunteered in the first rush of August 1914 and became a soldier from scratch alongside thousands of others answering Kitchener’s call.\u003cbr\u003eThe front he served on\u003cbr\u003eThe 12th (Eastern) Division went into the line at Loos that September, then spent a bitter month holding the Hohenzollern Redoubt through October. By 10 December 1915 the division had moved north to Givenchy, taking over the line north of the La Bassée Canal, and settled into what the divisional record calls a quiet period of trench routine that ran until 18 January 1916.\u003cbr\u003eEdwards died eleven days after that quiet spell is recorded as ending, on 29 January 1916, in the same sector. “Quiet” on the Western Front never meant safe. Shelling, sniping and raiding continued even when no major action was underway, and it was this steady, unglamorous attrition, not a headline battle, that most likely cost him his life.\u003cbr\u003eWhat the card leaves unsaid\u003cbr\u003eThis is a man who volunteered before almost anyone else in his battalion, trained through a hard winter, crossed to France with the first wave of his unit, and died in the grinding routine of trench warfare barely eight months later, one of many thousands whose war never made a headline but whose service number, if you know how to read it, tells you exactly how early and how willingly he stepped forward.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gradia Militaria","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53618905219400,"sku":"July26-522","price":100.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0924\/1103\/5976\/files\/IMG-1566_ba8cef55-bc13-475c-8f10-9dea19fc6d27.heic?v=1785420391","url":"https:\/\/www.gradiamilitaria.com\/products\/war-medal-gs-41-cpl-w-f-edwards-r-w-kent-r-d-o-w-29-1-16","provider":"Gradia Militaria","version":"1.0","type":"link"}