1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Edward Samuel Moody (he acquired the surname Wilkes later — see below) was born, it is believed, in December 1892 in the East Dean district of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. His parents were James Moody (a labourer) and his wife Elizabeth (née Wilce), living in East Dean and they had three other children: Ernest Charles (born1886), William James (1887) and Lillian Margaret (1890).
Evidence suggests that Elizabeth Moody died, age 34, when giving birth to Edward (her funeral was on 27 December 1892) and his birth registration was in the first quarter of 1893 (baptism followed in June of that year). Her untimely death probably necessitated the break up of the family. It seems likely that the second eldest son was taken on by a relative in the Wilce family and that their daughter, Lillian, went with her father to Yorkshire, where he obtained work as a coalminer. The 1901 Census shows he and Lillian living as lodgers in a house in Hunslet, headed up by Ruth Knowles, a widow. She and James married on 9 August 1902. It has not proved possible to ascertain, with any certainty, where the eldest son, Ernest Charles, ended up.
By 1901 Edward Samuel Moody was living with a childless couple, who had been married for twenty-six years, Samuel and Elizabeth Wilkes, at 12 Royal Oak Yard, in the Westgate district of Gloucester. Whilst he was listed in the 1901 Census as their son, when it came to the 1911 Census he is shown as being an adopted son. It is not known if the Wilkes had any family connection with either of Edward’s parents. The 1911 Census shows the family living at Davenport Yard in Gloucester.
Edward’s occupation in 1911 (aged 18) was a ‘coremaker’ (someone who made cores for foundry moulds). Unfortunately, no Army Service or Pension Records have survived for him and details of his service are limited but enough to obtain a reasonable picture.
After the completion of his Army service he was awarded a Silver War Badge (SWB), which indicated he had undergone military service and had been discharged. The register shows him as having enlisted on 2 September 1914 (almost certainly in the Gloucestershire Regiment). His Medal Rolls Index Card states that he first went abroad, to the Western Front, on 18 July 1915. The War Diary for the 1st Glosters notes that a draft of one Serjeant and 24 men was received on 25 July 1915, after the battalion had gone for a spell of rest in the Divisional Reserve, at Verquin, near Bethune. He would have been in training up to that point and there is no evidence for any military service prior to the Great War.
It is likely that his first taste of significant action came at the Battle of Loos (25 September to 8 October 1915). Thereafter the next major action would have been the Somme Offensive of July to November 1916. The Gloucestershire Journal of 11 November 1916 published the War Office Casualty List from 6 November and ‘17615 E S M Wilkes’ is named as one of the wounded. In the absence of a service record it is not possible to ascertain when the wounding occurred but it could have been during the attack on High Wood on 8 September, as publication of the names of casualties were normally several weeks after the event.
A recently released Pension Record Card (PRC) records Edward as sustaining a gunshot wound to his right foot and after it there is an endorsement ‘amp’, which probably means that he had to have the foot amputated. He was granted a 50% disability pension for life. His SWB record states that he was discharged from the Army on 29 April 1919, which suggests a long period of treatment and convalesce and possibly the amputation was a ‘last resort’ in the process.
His war service had left him a cripple and more grave misfortune was to follow. A separate PRC states that he died at home (5 Davenport Yard, Gloucester) from tuberculosis, on 14 June 1921, aged 29. The local newspapers carried no report of his funeral, only an insert placed by his adoptive mother thanking all those who had expressed expressions of condolence.
Lance Corporal Edward Samuel Moody Wilkes was buried in Gloucester Old Cemetery, where a standard CWGC headstone marks his grave. It carries the inscription ‘E S M Wilkes’ and his full name appears in the CWGC Register. The Electoral Register for 1918 lists him as ‘Edward Samuel Moody’.
Researched by Graham Adams 6 March 2020