Edgar Pettitt was born on the 6th December 1883 in Boxmoor to Arthur and Martha Ann. He was the middle child and had an older brother Sidney Arthur and a younger sister Ethel May. His father was a Cellar Foreman at a Wine Merchants and the family lived at 28 Cotterells Road, Boxmoor where Arthur and Martha spent their entire married life. Both Edgar and Sidney worked for John Dickinsons and were listed as ‘Clerks in a Paper Mill’ on the 1901 Census.

Interestingly his sister Ethel May is listed as a ‘School Teacher’ on the same return when she is only fourteen years old. Further research revealed that she was in fact a ‘Monitor’ at Boxmoor Junior, Middle and Infant School. Teaching duties in Victorian schools were sometimes passed on to some of the brightest children and they were known as ‘Monitors’. They would be taught by the Headmaster and would then pass this onto small groups of children.

It seems all three of the Pettitt children were ‘bright’ enough to complete their education successfully and acquire jobs with promising prospects. Edgar’s schooling also took place at Boxmoor JMI starting on 17th June 1889. The daily school log records that on 6th October 1894 he was absent from school with Diphtheria and a few of his classmates were also absent with a variety of ailments. Of greater concern to the teacher however, was the absence of many other boys for what seems a rather spurious reason; “…over 20 boys are absent this afternoon ‘acorning’. St IV (Standard IV Class) do not attend well and are an awful drag.” Elsewhere the same teacher laments absences for ‘blackberrying’ and parents keeping children away from school to work illegally. All an indication of the need for poorer families to earn money in any way possible.

There were six Standards of Education given in the Revised code of Regulations, 1872 in Victorian schools. These standards do not correspond to year groups as promotion was on merit, and many children did not complete all the grades. Standard IV, mentioned in the School Log, had three elements: Reading - Read a few lines of poetry or prose, at the choice of the inspector; Writing - Write a sentence slowly dictated once, by a few words at a time, from a reading book, such as is used in the first class of the school and finally; Arithmetic - Compound rules (common weights and measures). Edgar completed all six standards successfully by the time he left school in April 1897 when he joined Dickinsons as a Clerk.

He seems to have left his job with Dickinsons by the time war broke out as he is not listed on the Company war memorial at Apsley. He volunteered in August 1914 and enlisted with the 1st Bn. Rifle Brigade and following initial training he was posted to the Front on the 23rd November of the same year.

The 1st Battalion had landed at Le Havre in France as part of the 11th Brigade in the 4th Division in August 1914 and it saw action at the First Battles of the Marne and the Aisne in September and the Battle of Messines in October. The Battalion war diaries then record continuing movement until reaching Ploegsteert Wood eight miles south of Ypres. In fact, it moved a total of 344 miles between the 25th August and the 21st November, often only a few miles each day but, in early October the Battalion covered sixty-two miles in four days.

By 18th March 1915, Edgar was with the Battalion at St Yves just north of Armentières and the diaries record that the men’s absence from the trenches was causing some concern; “18th March Men have got out of the way of trench life and are apt to expose their heads needlessly.”

On the 19th March orders were received that the battalion was to relieve the St Yves position from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and over the next three days it was to experience “some shelling and sniping and a good many rifle grenades fired by the Germans.” Casualties are not recorded for the month but it was on 24th March 1915 that Edgar died of wounds received either on that day or in the preceding few days.

Edgar, like many other soldiers at the time, had written a letter to be passed on in the event of their death. His was to his mother and touchingly speaks to his faith and his pride in doing his duty. It was published in the Hemel Gazette under the heading “PATHETIC LETTER TO HIS MOTHER” referring to the piteous nature of his thoughts and words when his sad death followed so soon afterwards.

Edgar is Remembered with Honour at Strand Military Cemetery, Hainaut, Belgium and he is interred there in Plot: VIII. R. 3. The inscription on his headstone, requested by his mother Martha reads:

“HE DIED FOR HIS COUNTRY NOW ASLEEP IN CHRIST”

Edgar was 30 years old when he was killed. He was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.