Source: Michael Doyle Their Name Liveth For Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland.
He was the son of Thomas Smith, a railway engine stoker, born in the January quarter of 1869 in Stoke Golding, Leicestershire (son of Thomas Smith, 1840 and Sarah Ann Rose, 1842) and his wife Louisa Lydia Smith (nee Thompson, married on the 27th February 1894 in St. Luke’s Church, Leicester), born in the January quarter of 1868 in Leicester (daughter of Edward Thompson, 1841 and Eliza Neal, 1836). Edgar Thomas, was born in the July quarter of 1894 in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, his siblings were, Albert Edward, born in the April quarter of 1897 and William Arthur, born on the 15th January 1901 and baptised on the 4th November 1909 in the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Glen Parva & South Wigston, Leicestershire, both his siblings were born in Peterborough, in March 1901 the family home was at Chatsworth Cottages, Gladstone Street North, Peterborough.
In April 1911 Edgar was employed as a grocery packer and was residing in the family home at 45, Fairfield Road, South Wigston, together with his father, a Midland Railway Company engine driver, his mother and siblings, Albert, a chemist’s errand boy, William, a schoolboy and Edith Lilian, born on the 5th November 1906 in South Wigston and baptised on the 4th November 1909 in the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, Glen Parva & South Wigston.
Edgar’s army service enlistment documents do not survive, therefore the currently available information pertaining to his military service has been obtained from the following sources: - 1921 HMSO Publication, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914 - 1919, WW1 Service Medal and Award Rolls, Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, WW1 Medal Rolls Index Cards, WW1 Pension Ledgers and Index Cards and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Registers.
Enlisted/Attested in Leicester into the Territorial Force. Date not known.
Joined. At Leicester. Date not known.
Posted. To Depot Leicestershire Regt. Pte. Date not known.
Allotted the Regimental Service number 5032.
Posted. To 1/4th Bn. Leicestershire Regt. Pte. Date not known.
First entered the theatre of war in France after the 31st December 1915.
Posted. To “B” Company. Date not known.
Under the Army Council Instruction (A.C.I. 2414/1916), published on the 23rd December 1916, that promulgated a new numbering system for all Territorial Force units, Edgar was allotted the regimental service number 201498.
Wounded in action. In the Field. Date not known.
Died of wounds in Rouen Hospital, France. 22/10/18.
Buried in Boisguillaume Communal Cemetery Extension, Seine-Maritime, France. Headstone inscription. “Greater love hath no man than that he laid down his life for his friends.”
Awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
In the event of his death, Edgar nominated his mother Louisa as his sole legatee.
[recognitum IV-III-MMXXIV]