WW1 RESEARCH PROJECT

SOLDIER & EX PUPIL: EDWIN TRYDELL

19158 Gdmn. J. Edwin TRYDELL Grenadier Guards 4th Battalion

Edwin was killed in action on Saturday 25 of September 1916 in an attack on Bernafay Wood during the Battle of the Somme. His family received a letter from his closest pal who was in the attack saying,

"Edwin was shot in the stomach during a charge on the enemy trenches in which 150 Germans met their deaths at the point of the bayonet. Although I was not near him at the time, another of our pals who attended him said Edwin died very quickly. As you know he had just returned after being wounded in the head during a bombing attack on the enemy. He was one of the bravest men I ever knew and we will all miss him very much. After the attack we buried him on the battlefield near Ginchy."

Edwin was part of the 3rd Guards Brigade Guards Division. Born in Bellshill and enlisted at Glasgow, he was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. John and Martha Trydell, Academy House, Bellshill. At one time Edwin actually lived within the school grounds in the “Academy House”. We believe his father was the school caretaker/janitor.

Before enlistment Edwin was employed with Messrs Stewarts, and Lloyds, Clydesdale Iron & Steel Works, Mossend.

After the war, The Imperial War Graves Commission could not find Edwin's grave near Ginchy as the ground had been so badly torn up after much shelling of that battlefield. He is commemorated on THIEPVAL MEMORIAL5 Somme, France. Pier & Face 8D...

The Thiepval Memorial at Somme