8th February 2016 Edward was one of John Thomas’s older brothers and was born in 1889 in Stamford. In 1911 he was 22 and living with the rest of his family at 15 St Leonard’s Street. He was then employed as a porter at a chemist. In 1901 the family lived at 16 Gas Street. In 1891 two year old Edward lived at 64 North Street. Information about Edward’s enlistment date has not been found. The record of his death in France on 18th September reveals that he was formerly enlisted into the Sherwood Foresters (24290), then a member of the Labour Corps (46550) and finally the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders (S/50406). It was as a member of the Cameron Highlanders (11th Battalion) that Private Edward Middleton aged 29 was killed in action in France/Flanders in the Western European Theatre of War on 18th September 1918 only weeks before armistice was declared. Erquinghem-Lys Churchyard Extension Nord ‘On this day in 1918, near the French village of Epehy, the British 4th Army, commanded by Sir Henry Rawlinson, attacks German forward outposts in front of the Hindenburg Line, Germany’s last line of defence on the Western Front. After initial reluctance General Haig changed his mind and authorized the attack by all three corps of Rawlinson’s army, aided by a corps of the 3rd Army fresh from its success at Havrincourt. The British-led assault went ahead on the morning of September 18, 1918, with a creeping artillery barrage from approximately 1,500 guns, as well as 300 machine guns. Although the Germans held steady on both flanks, they were soundly defeated in the centre by the Allied advance. Although by no means a large-scale success, Epehy, along with Havrincourt and St Mihiel before it, confirmed present German weakness, and thus encouraged further Allied action.’ Edward was buried and commemorated in the Erquinghem-Lys Churchyard Extension Nord. In Stamford he is remembered with his brother, John Thomas, on the Stamford War Memorial and on the St George’s Church Memorial. For his military service he received the British and Victory Medals