4th (Reserve) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
Almost nothing is known of Edward Francis McIntosh’s background. There is no firm evidence that he was born locally. His Medal Index Card shows him to have enlisted in the Gloucestershire Regiment, with the number 4561 and this was thought to be with the 1/6th (Territorial Force) Battalion. In early 1917 men in Territorial Force units were the subject of re-numbering and McIntosh would have received his new number, 266525 at about this time.
According to the CWGC Register he was serving with the 4th Battalion at time of death and this would have been the 1/4th (Territorial Force) Battalion. It is believed that he died, of shell shock, and the UK Death Register records someone of his name having died at Richmond, North Yorkshire at about the time of his actual death, which was 18 May 1917: aged 29. He is not listed in Soldiers Died in the Great War and no contemporary newspaper reports of his death and service have been traced.
He is buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, with a CWGC headstone and commemorated on the Cheltenham Town War Memorial.
Since the research volume (mentioned below) was written there has been a release of Pension Record Cards and these, in conjunction with other records on Ancestry, reveal a lot more background information on Private McIntosh. Evidently his death was down to pulmonary tuberculosis, contracted on active service. The card shows he had a widow, Lily Kathleen Lee (née Dufour), born on 28 July 1896, whom he married at Axbridge, Devon in the Spring of 1916. She was a member of a Cheltenham family and according to the 1911 Census was living in the town, as a domestic servant. Following Edward’s death she remarried, on 30 November 1917. Her new husband was Private Harry Amos Morris, a Canadian soldier and it is believed that she emigrated to Canada, following the wedding.
Researched by Graham Adams 1 February 2013 (revised 3 August 2021)
(Acknowledgement to ‘Leaving all that was dear – Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Joe Devereux & Graham Sacker)