ELLIOTT, Edgar. CH. WW1. CWGC.

Died 07/07/1918 Age 32 Private, Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment), Depot Service Number 71633. Previously Private, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Service Number 8334

Edgar ELLIOTT was born on 1 June 1886, from a marginal note on his baptism certificate. His birth was registered in Derby in the autumn of 1886 and he was baptised in St Peter’s Derby on 13 May 1887. His parents were George Elliott and Alice Elliott (nee Braywood) who married in 1886 in Derby, and in May 1887 were living at 1 Court, 3 Bloom Street, Derby.

The 1891 Census has the family living at 3 Union Street Derby, with George and Alice Elliott were Edgar, the eldest of their four children, and Alice’s illegitimate son Frederick Braywood recorded in the 1881 Census and born in 1881 before she was married.

By the 1901 Census the family were at 3 Union Street, Derby. Together with his parents George and Alice Elliott, Edgar then aged 15 was the eldest of their seven children and he was a threader in a cotton mill.

Edgar ELLIOTT enlisted in 1903 in the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, his Service Number 8334, however he was discharged 5 September in 1905 as medically unfit. His military record describes him as a Lace Hand living at 3 Union Street, Derby.

In February 1907 Edgar ELLIOTT was before the Magistrates Court in Derby, charged and found guilty of stealing electric cable from the Derby Borough’s lighting department. The court was told that following his army discharge he had spent a year in an asylum and his mother testified the “he had not been quite right in the mind”. As a first offender he was discharged on his own, and his mother’s, recognisances. 

Before the 1911 Census Edgar’s father had passed away and the remaining family were at 38 Borough’s Walk, Derby. His mother Alice Elliott was now a widow, Edgar was now a twist hand in a lace factory.

Edgar ELLIOTT re-enlisted on 9 November 1914 with the Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) and served in France tor 2 months in 1916 and again for 6 months in 1917

He was hospitalised at the 11th General Hospital in France, then repatriated on 27 Aug 1917 to the Kitchener Military Hospital Brighton. He was further transferred to the Convalescent Hospital Woldingham (Surrey), then to the Croydon War Hospital then to the Addington Park War Hospital (Surrey). He was suffering from severe intestinal problems, which are graphically described in his Military Medical Records, the last entry being that on 15 Feb 1918 when he was discharged from the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich, suffering from carcinoma of the rectum, “aggravated by his service in the War with Germany”. On 11 March 1918 Edgar ELLIOTT was discharged as medically unfit for military service, with his address as 38 Borough’s Walk, Derby.

Edgar ELLIOTT died on 07 July 1918 aged 32, and was buried on 11 July 1918. Plot A39/48280.

Edgar ELLIOTT was awarded the Victory Medal and British War Medal.

The 1921 Census of 38 Borough’s Walk, Derby shows that mother Alice Elliott as a widow aged 65 living with two of her unmarried children. 

Sources: Derby Census of 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911 and 1921. Register of Marriages in Derby for 1886. Baptism Record. Military Medical Record, Medal Records and Register of Soldiers’ Effects. Newspaper articles and announcements.