Private Edwin Stephen Price

Edwin was born in July 1884 to parents James and Frances Price in Wimbledon.
His father James was born in Bethnal Green. He had married Frances and moved to Wimbledon by the time of the 1891 Census and the family were living at 1 St. Mark’s Place at the bottom of Wimbledon Hill Road. At this time Edwin was the second youngest of 6 brothers and a sister. James was shown as being employed as a builder and undertaker.
At the time of the 1901 Census, Edwin was in Gap Road isolation hospital. The reason for this was not recorded, but could have been Scarlet Fever, Tuberculosis or Smallpox as all these were not uncommon at the time and treated in isolation hospitals.
Whatever he suffered from, he recovered well enough to be employed as a stockbroker’s clerk in 1911, but still living at home aged 27 with 2 brothers and a sister. The family had by this time moved to 232, Merton Road. His father James was now shown as just being a builder.
Edwin married Mary Ann Frances Harding in the summer of 1913 and the couple set up home in Aston road, one of the “Apostles” near Raynes Park station.
When he joined up for the First World War, it was with the 4th battalion of the Suffolk regiment where he was private number 202108.
In September 1917, his Battalion was involved in the 3rd battle of Ypres. According to the war diary entries of those days, there was a lot of confusion about the advance planned as it seems some regiments were late arriving, orders never got through to the left flank of the advance due to the commanding officer being shot, and the Germans planning an advance at the same time.
Over the 2 days from September 26th to September 27th, there were 2 officers killed and 7 wounded, and 43 other ranks killed and 150 wounded. There were also 68 recorded as missing. Edwin must have been one of the latter as his body was never identified, so he is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial on Stone number 40.