According to Wilfred 'Bay' Edgar, his uncle Wilfred had a
colourful life:
(He) emigrated to America and was believed killed in the San Francisco earthquake (but) he later re-appeared in Australia
That earthquake was in 1906 and documentary evidence makes
this story unlikely.
Wilfred Henry Edgar was born in Tendring Essex,
about seven miles from Clacton . His birth
was registered in the July-September quarter of 1888 - I have a note that says he was
actually born on May 28, but that was based on a record in Find My Past, and I
don't have that subscription at the moment.
In 1901 he was living with his family in Stapleford Abbots,
Ongar, Essex and is described as a 'scholar' aged 12.
Wilfred joined the Essex Militia as a reservist in 1904 and
his Attestation form has him working as a gardener for a Mr. Webb of Romford
and living at Chigwell , four miles
from Stapleford Abbots.
Chigwell Station, opened 1903
By Sunil060902 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3105725
As Wilfred hadn't been in the regular army, he was
most likely in the Special Reserve:
This was a form of
part-time soldiering, in some ways similar to the Territorial Force. Men would
enlist into the Special Reserve for 6 years and had to accept the possibility
of being called up in the event of a general mobilisation and otherwise
undertake all the same conditions as men of the Army Reserve. Their period as a
Special Reservist started with six months full-time training (paid the same as
a regular) and they had 3-4 weeks training per year thereafter. A man who had
not served as a regular could extend his SR service by up to four years but could
not serve beyond the age of 40.[1]
The 1911 Census - the last to be currently available - has
Thomas, Harriet, Wilfred and Thomas Jr. listed in the household of Horace S.
Palmer, a 22 year old farmer of Stewarts Farm, Toot Hill, Ongar, Stanford Rivers , Essex . This was Thomas and Harriet's low point, as they
had fallen to the status of domestic servants, and they most likely feared they
might end in the workhouse if one or both became too old or sick to work. Wilfred is described as a 'Reservist' which suggests he didn't have a full-time income and explains why he was living with his parents, perhaps in return for informal services on the farm.
But all this means that Wilfred was in Romford two years
before the San Francisco earthquake and back with his family in another part of Essex five years after it. He was still a reservist in
the Militia in 1911 and my guess is that his service was unbroken by time spent
in California ,
although this is not, of course, certain. He was single at that time and I can
find no record of his ever having married.
Wilfred - like his brothers Thomas and Herbert, the subject
of future posts - served in the First World War. The Special Reservists were
called up in early August 1914 and Wilfred went at first to the Royal Field
Artillery. He was moved to the Royal
Horse Artillery, where he worked as a driver (Number 34472, the same as in the
RFA), and entered the Western Front (France and Flanders )
on March 30, 1915:
The RHA provided
light, mobile guns giving firepower in support of the cavalry. It was the
senior arm of the artillery.[2]
His service qualified him for the Victory, British and Star
medals - but that tells us nothing more, as all three would have been awarded
to anyone who had fought the Central Powers in 1914 and 1915.
Bay's memories of his uncles and aunts, although not
accurate in every detail, are generally soundly based in fact - so is there any
evidence of Wilfred ending up in Australia ?
Well, W. H. Edgar, a garage proprietor, aged 43, of 4, Clarence Gardens ,
Hampstead, sailed on the Otranto
(Orient Line) to Melbourne
on September 1, 1934, intending to make Australia his permanent
residence. The age is about 3 years out,
but he could well have decided to pass as a little younger in the new jobs market.
So this might or might not be my great uncle Wilfred, but, in
any case, I've not been able to find any further trace of him in the record.
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