In April 1916, the battalion landed in France where they took part in bloody trench warfare. At the end of May 1916 Edwin was shot through the thigh in an action that saw nearly 40 of his comrades killed. He was evacuated to England where he was hospitalised for three months before returning to the battalion in the Somme valley in December.

In the Spring of 1917 the battalion took part in the brief advance that followed the German Army's retreat to the Hindenburg Line but, on 6 April, during a German counter attack at Louverval, France, Edwin himself was killed.

Robin Marriott