8th December 2015 Edward was born on 11 September 1896 in Stamford. He lived in the village of Little Casterton at 11 The Street with father Edward a groom/coachman, mother Susan, older sisters Christine and Gertrude and brother Thomas. In 1905 another boy, Cecil, was born but shortly afterwards father Edward died. He was only in his mid-forties and Susan his widow was in her late thirties. She was born into a Stamford family in 1868, the daughter of James and Elizabeth Langley of 70 Scotgate. So when she found herself destitute with five children to keep she turned for help to her three brothers. James, a year older than Susan, was unmarried and living alone and Susan took her children to Stamford to keep house for him. In 1911 they were all living together at 17 Alexandra Terrace, Susan was working as a laundress and Edward Philip was still at school. Only a few years later Susan and her children left her brother’s house and went to live at 9 Melbourne Road, off Ryhall Road. Edward Philip went to work as an iron-moulder when he left school but at the outbreak of war he enlisted in the army on one of Sergeant Blanchard’s recruiting evenings. On 11 Nov 1914 aged 18, he became Private 3013 in the Lincolnshire Regiment 4th Battalion Reservists. He was 5ft 2ins tall, had a chest expansion of 32 inches, with good vision and good overall level of fitness. He was called to serve and posted to France as a Drummer on 1 April 1916 but was transferred to Private 260910 on 31 August 1917. In early 1918 he suffered a gas attack and was sent back to England to Eastern Command Depot(Shoreham) to be treated in Eastern General Hospital, Brighton. He was demobilised on 5 September 1919 at Lichfield after serving for 4 years, 291 days, assessed as of good character but ‘suffering impairment since entry’. At a medical examination on 5 September 1919 he was said to be ‘20% disabled from emphysema’, probably the effects of the gas attack. On 29 September 1919 he was allowed 5s 6d per week disability pension, to be reviewed after a year. In 1920 he received his British War Medal and his King’s Certificate. Returning to Stamford, he married Connie Horsley in the summer of 1922. She was born in Barnack in 1905, the daughter of Arthur and Emma Horsley. When Edward Philip died in Stamford in March 1943 at the age of 49 Connie was not yet forty years old. She was re-married in 1945 to Ernest W Needham.