PRIVATE 66064 EDGAR FORREST, 10th BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS (LONDON REGIMENT). KILLED IN ACTION 18th DECEMBER 1917, AGED 20


PRIVATE 66064 EDGAR FORREST, 10th BATTALION ROYAL FUSILIERS (LONDON REGIMENT). KILLED IN ACTION 18th DECEMBER 1917, AGED 20



Born in Wellington Road, Edgar Forrest was the son of Amos, a carter and his wife Elizabeth. He probably attended Ilkley National School on Leeds Road and following the completion of his education taken employment as a horseman. In 1916 he was living in Guiseley and it was there that he married Mary Rishworth Snowden, a cotton weaver, at St Oswalds Parish Church on the 22nd April. Before the year was out the couple would have a daughter, Irene.
Edgar was conscripted into the army when he was 18 years old and joined the 89th Training Battalion. In May 1917 he was posted initially to the Norfolk Regiment but a month later was re-assigned to the 10th Battalion Royal Fusiliers. This unit had originally been formed at the beginning of the war by wealthy bankers from the City of London and was known as the 'Stockbrokers Battalion'. However, as the war progressed and casualties mounted, the battalion had to accept drafts from across the country and from different backgrounds.
On the 18th December 1917 Edgar was with his battalion in the front line south of Ypres near to a position near to a feature known as White Chateau. Whilst helping to take rations to the front line he was hit by a fragment of a German shell and badly wounded. Evacuated from the trench line he was sent to a Casualty Clearing Station at Kemmel where sadly he succumbed to his wounds.
Today, Private Edgar Forrest lies in the British Military Cemetery at Klien-Vierstaat and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley

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