Thank you to Jim Edwards for this research.
Edmund Vialls (b 20 Feb 1888) was a teacher at the Dorking High School. After much deliberation, he attested for the army on 27th November 1915 but was immediately placed on the reserve, as was usual at that time. He was mobilised on 17th April 1916 but was again immediately placed on the reserve. His marriage was registered in the second quarter of 1918 and he was mobilised again on 11th June 1918, when he joined the 1st reserve infantry battalion of the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London. He was admitted to 4th London General Hospital, Brixton on 30th June and died the same day. The post mortem showed old signs of TB, together with new signs of pneumonia and pleurisy. His condition was judged “not due to but aggravated by military service”. His widow was awarded 13/9 pension per week. (The salary for a male teacher would have been around £4 per week, so she was getting less than one fifth of this amount.) One of his colleagues said of him that “his one purpose was to serve his Maker and extend His kingdom”. He was buried at New Brentford Cemetery.
“Tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas) quem mihi, quem tibi finem di dederint… ut melius, quicquid erit, pati.”
“Ask not (twere wrong) what God has in store for me and what for you. It were better to bear the future, whatever it be.”
These words from his beloved Horace were quoted by him on that last summer evening we spent together. I wonder now whether he realised how supremely fitting they are to his life. He applied them then to a particular occasion, his last day in school, wondering in his heart what the future would bring him, yet perfectly willing to bear his lot. During five years of the closest and most intimate friend-ship, I have never known him grumble when things were going wrong, even the big things of his life. He was ever prepared to go on facing the difliculties, however great.
His life was given to service. He was never happier than when doing good turns, particularly if he had to go out of his way to do them. Nothing was too much trouble for him. Even a few hours before his death, he walked up to his bed in the ward, thinking that he was saving someone else the trouble of carrying him.
He lived a clean and pure life and was absolutely straight in all his dealings, even to the minutest detail. Everything he did stood or fell by this one test-right. When the war broke out, he gave long and serious thought to the part he ought to play in it. Popular specches and the superficial appeals of modern journalism in the autumn of 1914 grated on his finer feelings. His heart ached for the opportunity of shutting out the utter callousness of the whole matter, so that he might give thought to deciding on his particular duty. Once his mind was made up, he was satisfied that he must offer his services to his country. When he volunteered for the Army in 1915, he did so from sheer sense of duty, sense of right. But his soul shuddered at the very thought of shedding human blood, and he hoped against hope even to the end that he would be able to avoid such means.
In those long evening talks by the fireside, I had a unique opportunity of looking deeply into his soul. Then I found that his one purpose in life was to serve his Maker and to extend His Kingdom. He gave sober and serious thought to his religion and he was satisfied in his mind that he was in this world for the purpose of serving his God.
Let us “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” His death was a triumph. We are the losers, the gain is Heaven’s, for his was a beautiful soul.
T.
Pte. E. Vialls who joined the Army a few weeks ago, has died suddenly. On the stuff of the Dorking High School as French master since November, 1912, he volunteered for the Army in 1915, but, owing to his low category, he remained at the school. He was re-examined last month, and called up for military service on June 11th, joining the H.A.C. Infantry Battalion. He was happy in his work, though he confessed he found training very hard. The news of his death came as a great shock to his family and friends, for he was out with his wife on the evening previous to his death, which took place at the Denmark Hill Hospital. He has only been married since Easter this year.
Edmund Vialls Death Notice 6th July 1918 © Dorking Advertiser findmypast.co.uk
| Born | Hounslow | |
| Lived | Hounslow | |
| Husband of | E.D Vialls of 77 Standard Road, Hounslow, Middlesex | |
| Regiment | 1st (Reserve) Battalion. Honourable Artillery Company | |
| Number | 11927 | |
| Date of Death | 30th June 1918 | |
| Place of Death | Home | |
| Cause of Death | Pneumonia and Pleurisy | |
| Age | 30 | |
| Cemetery | Brentford and Chiswick (New Brentford) Cemetery Middlesex |
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