Page 259 - The Bugle 2018

3 Rifles Bearer Party prepare the Union Flag for presentation to the Edmundson Family
A short service is held at the graveside of the parents of Pte Thomas Edmundson 26 Apnl 2018
Edmundson family with Bearer Party and Revd Swanson
DLI Padre Revd Kenneth Crawford conducts a Service of Remembrance in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery 103 years to the date of Pte Thomas Edmundson
the Battalion had withdrawn from Zonnebeke. A search through old newspapers revealed an article explaining the exact nature of Thomas’s death:
‘Mr C. F. Smith, of Ormonde Street, has received a letter from his son, Pte John D Smith, of the 7th Durhams, stating that in the battle of Ypres he was wounded in the thigh by shrapnel and is now in hospital at Lincoln. He received the injury last Monday, exactly a week after leaving Newcastle. In his letter Private Smith also stated that the same shell which wounded him killed his companion, Private T. Edmundson, of Abingdon Street, but no official confirmation has yet been received of this it is hoped that it will not prove correct’.
Smith and Edmundson must have been friends as they lived only a few streets from one another in Sunderland.
A full military funeral for T T Edmundson took place on Wednesday 14th March at Perth Cemetery (China Wall) Ypres, Belgium. The service was conducted by the Revd John Swanston, (1st Battalion, the Rifles) and the bearer party comprised of members from 3rd Battalion, the Rifles under the command of Sergeant Gareth Forrest. Some members of the Edmundson family had immigrated to Canada and they along with family members from UK were also in attendance.
Given the nature and identification of the remains a most poignant, respectful and memorable service
was conducted with all the solemnity and dignity the occasion warranted and deserved.
The wording on the headstone of ‘I once
was lost but now am found ... and grace
will lead me home‘ was especially signif- icant given the circumstance under which the remains had been found.
The death of Thomas was never forgotten by his parents, witnessed to them including reference to him on their headstone in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery, Sunderland. The family still living in Sunderland, thought it appro- priate that some sort of ‘act of closure’ would be appropriate. Consequently on 26th April 2018 -exactly 102 years to the day he was killed- a short service of remembrance was held at his parent’s graveside, this being conducted by Rev Kenneth Crawford (D.L.I. Chaplain). In addition to the family, members from various branches of the D.L.I. Associ- ation were in attendance (particularly the Sunderland branch)
together with standard bearers and buglers. Sergeant Forrest had also travelled from Edinburgh to attend the proceedings.
The family never forgot Thomas Edmundson and gave him a headstone in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery in Sunderland
THE RIFLES