10th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Edward Stephen Earle was born at 77 Bisley Old Road, Stroud in 1893, one of eight children to James and Ellen Earle.
The 1911 census shows Edward was a general labourer. In 1912 Edward married Florence Emily Pitt, they had four children; James and Rose who both died within weeks of being born, Minnie who died in 1925, aged only 12, and Horace who died in 2004.
In December 1914 Edward joined the Cheshire Bantam Regiment, at Birkenhead. Edward’s records show that he was 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighed 108 pounds, and had a chest measurement of 25 inches but his vision was only 6/9 in both eyes, and due to this defective vision he was discharged from the army in February 1915.
In May 1916 Edward was recalled and was passed ‘A’ class, and fit for active service at Horfield Barracks, Bristol. Edward joined the Gloucester Training Battalion, before transferring to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in October 1916, and finally to the 10th Warwickshires in April 1918.
While in France Edward had several spells in hospital suffering with eczema of the scalp, which can be caused by stress.
Early in June the 10th Warwickshires were in the front line in the vicinity of Bligny, near Reims, on the Champagne front. On the 4th of June 1918 the battalion diary notes several casualties due to shelling. This could possibly be when Edward received the injuries that led to his death, as his records report that he died of wounds on the7th of June 1918.
Edward was originally laid to rest at Chichey Military Cemetery, just outside Sezanne, but during the 1920s he was reburied at Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, just north of Boulogne.
Edward is remembered on the Stroud War Memorial and also in St Laurence Church in Stroud.