In a quiet corner of Portishead Cemetery, Somerset, is the grave of Private EG Davies. His headstone confirms that he was in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, give the date of his death – 23rd March 1919 – and his age when he passed – 40 years old. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website confirms that Private Davies transferred to the Labour Corps, but only a couple of documents remain from his time in the army.
The soldier’s pension records confirm that his full name was Edward George Davies, and that, at the time of his death, he was living with his ‘unofficial wife’, Minnie Louisa Holbrook. The records also give the cause of death: influenza and septic bronchitis.
Minnie Louisa Fido was born in the spring of 1874 in Bedminster, Bristol, one of thirteen children to farmworker David Fido and his wife, Sarah. She married Arthur Holbrook on 28th April 1895, and had Gertrude four months later.
The Somerset School Register from 1906 notes that Gertrude Fido joined the Church of England School in Weston-in-Gordano on 12th February. It gives her mother’s name as Minnie Fido, but doesn’t give a father’s name. It seems that Gertrude left the school in November 1914, as she had found work.
A search of the 1911 census records shows Edward and Minnie (whose surname is now given as Davies), living in George Street, Portishead. Edward is listed as a wagoner on a farm, and that he was born in Gloucestershire. Minnie is noted as a charwoman from Nailsea, Somerset. Making up the household is Gertrude, noted as being Edward’s stepdaughter, and who was working as a domestic servant.
Edward’s history is more of a challenge to piece together. The 1911 census gives his place of birth as Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, and census records from the years following his birth give his parents names as Henry and Charlotte Davis.
In 1896, Edward joined the Gloucestershire Regiment as a Private, his papers suggesting that his apparent age was 18 years and 3 months (he was, in fact, barely 17 years old). Despite having ‘rather flat feet’, he spent the next five years in the army, and served in South Africa. He was medically discharged in November 1901.
Returning to the 1911 census once more, the document suggests he and Minnie had been married for eight years, although later army pension documents suggest Minnie was his unofficial wife.
When war broke out, it seems that he stepped up to play his part once more, although the records give some confusion about how and where he served. The war memorial in Portishead records him as Private Edward George Davies of the Royal Horse Artillery, while the Somerset Book of Remembrance commemorates Gunner Edwards George Davies of the Royal Horse Artillery. The North Weston War Memorial suggests he was a Private in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, and this matches the details recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Minnie did not marry, or co-habit, again, and she passed away on Christmas Day 1949, at the age of 75 years old. Gertrude looks to have married a man called Bessant. The 1939 England and Wales Register recorded her living in the Portishead area, and working as a supervisor in a boot factory. She was living with her maternal uncle, Herbert Fido, but was noted as being the head of the household. She died early in 1967 in Weston-super-Mare.
[Note: My thanks to Rob Clarke of the Weston-super-Mare Family History Society for helping me unpick some of the hidden areas of Edward and Millie’s lives.]
Death and Service 