Edwin James Ward was born at the start on 3rd December 1879 in London. The oldest of four children, his parents were William and Emma Ward. William, who was a printer, had also been born in London, and the family lived initially in rooms on Trafalgar Street, Walworth, then Hardaker Street in Shoreditch.

There are tantalising gaps in Edwin’s life, and it is a challenge to piece together what happened to him after the 1891 census. He disappears from the records for nearly two decades, and is it likely that he had enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry, and spent time overseas.

On 21st August 1908, Edwin married a woman called Kate. There is no further information available about her, although the couple went on to have a daughter, Kitty, who was born in Portsmouth on 13th November 1911.

Edwin’s trail goes cold again at this point. He appears to have risen through the ranks with the Royal Marines and, by the summer of 1914, was a Sergeant. He was assigned to the battleship HMS Bulwark, and was on board on the 26th November 1914, when she was moored close to Sheerness, Kent. That morning, an explosion ripped through the ship, sinking it and killing more than 740 people. Sergeant Ward was amongst them: he was 34 years of age.

The body of Edwin James Ward was laid to rest in a marked grave in the naval section of Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent.

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