Private Nathan Edwards

A CAPEL MAN’S DEVOTION

The death has occurred on active service of Pte. Nathan Edwards, of the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment. Though his death was due to sunstroke, it was the result of a fine act of devotion to a wounded comrade, whom he carried back to our lines a distance of two miles in the burning heat after an action in which the regiment was engaged in Mesopotamia, as recorded in our last issue. Pte. Edwards, before joining the Army was in the employ of the Dorking Rural District Council. He had been living at Capel, but had made his home at Blechingley with his sister, Mrs. Groombridge, who has received the following letter from his commanding officer:- “I am writing as the officer commanding the company in which your brother served to express to you and all his friends, my sincere sympathy in your great loss. From the day he arrived here he proved himself to be a fine soldier and a true-hearted man: his cheerful spirit and transparent honesty soon won him respect and many friends. Throughout the action after which he died he showed unflinching courage in the face of the enemy, and his death was directly caused by an act of devotion on behalf of a wounded comrade. I have no doubt that the strain of carrying the wounded man a long distance in the intense heat was the immediate cause of the sunstroke which caused his death. His end was without pain, for he never regained consciousness after being struck down. In him we all feel we have lost a good friend and comrade.”

Nathan Edwards Death Notice © Dorking Advertiser findmypast.co.uk