Clement Edward Arthur Edwards was born in the summer of 1898, and was the oldest of six children to Clement and Caroline Edwards. Clement Sr was a colonel in the army, and had been born in Dublin, Ireland. His wife hailed from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, but it is clear that the family travelled as it grew, as each of the Edwards children were born in a different location. Clement Jr was born in Devon, while Caroline had given birth to his younger siblings in locations as distant as Sussex, Hampshire and the West Indies.

By the time of the 1911 census, Clement Sr had retired from duty. The family had settled back in Devon, and were living in the 12-roomed North Grange in the village of North Lew. Clement and Caroline employed five staff, including a cook, a nurse, a housemaid, a kitchen/parlour maid and a stable boy.

It seemed inevitable that Clement Jr would have followed his father into the army. Sadly his service records are lost to time, but a later newspaper report gives an insight into this time in the army:

Colonel and Mrs Edwards of Townsend House, Halberton, have the sympathy of all their friends and neighbours in the loss they have sustained by the death of their eldest son, 2nd-Lieut. Clement Edwards Alexander Edwards, of the Worcestershire Regiment, from pneumonia, following influenza, at the Northern General Hospital, Newcastle-on-Tyne [sic]. Edwards was formerly at Blundell’s School. He joined up at the earliest possible opportunity, obtaining a commission in his father’s regiment. He was a great favourite with all who knew him.

[Tiverton Gazette: Tuesday 10th December 1918]

Clement Edward Alexander Edwards died on 5th December 1918: he was just 20 years of age. His body was taken back to Devon for burial. He was laid to rest in the peaceful graveyard of St Andrew’s Church in Halberton.

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