Member of the staff at the Public Record Office.
Andrew Behan has researched Wetherall: Private Edwin Walter Wetherall was born in Stamford Hill and his birth was registered in the second quarter of 1897. He was the eldest son and the third of the seven children of Walter William Wetherall and Matilda Sarah Wetherall, née Trotman. His father was a Printer's Compositor who later became a Licensed Valuer. The 1891 census shows the family living at 56 Bruce Castle Road, Tottenham but by the time of the 1911 census they were living at 56 Stanmore Road, West Green, Tottenham.
On 9 November 1915 he enlisted in the 1st Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company, service number 4927 and at the time was living at 34 Woodberry Grove, Finsbury Park. He embarked from Southampton, Hampshire, on 29 March 1916 arriving the next day in Rouen, France where he immediately contracted German measles and was admitted into the Meerut Base General Hospital in Rouen.
He was able to rejoin his battalion on 25 May 1916. On 17 February 1917, whilst attached to 'C' Company, he received multiple shell wounds to his head, right hand and forearm, his left hand and forearm, his right knee and a fractured left leg and was taken to No.47 Casualty Clearing Station that was located in Varennes-en-Argonne, France. He was transferred to a hospital in Rouen where he died, aged 19 years, at 4.35am on 15 March 1917. He was buried in Block O, Plot 7, Row F, Grave 7, in the St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen. His father was sent his army effects totalling £7-11s-2d on 17 August 1917 and also received a £5-10s-0d war gratuity on 25 October 1919. He was posthumously awarded the British War medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them