Edward Joseph Fairbank was born on Moreton Place, Pimlico, Westminster, London on Wednesday, 10th March 1897 and baptised at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church on Horseferry Road a month later on Sunday, 18th April. His parents were Edward James Fairbank and Alice Ruth Thorn who had four other children besides Edward and those were: Frederick James Bernard, Albert Joseph, Winifred Helena and Philip George. When Edward was born his father worked as a Domestic Butler, but tragically, he died suddenly just before the birth of the youngest child Philip in 1899 and when Edward was only two-years-old. The second child Albert had died at birth in 1892, and before Edward went to war further sad deaths occurred in the family. His younger brother Philip died in 1907 when he was just eight-years-old and his sister Winifred passed away in 1913 aged twenty.

On the death of his father, Edward’s mother Alice brought her youngest boy Philip to Wigginton near Tring close to her parents home. The other three children however, remained in London with their paternal grandparents in West Hampstead and from there Frederick, Winifred and Edward started school. Edward entered St Catherine’s School in 1902 where he remained until he came to Hemel Hempstead to join his mother in the summer of 1910. By this time Alice had acquired a Stationery and Tobacconist business and traded from premises at 49 St John’s Road in Boxmoor. Edward went straight into Boxmoor JMI and completed his education in March 1912. He then joined his mother in her business and began his working life.

On the outbreak of war, he was too young at seventeen to volunteer, but shortly before he reached the age of eighteen in January 1915, he went to Hertford and enlisted with the Hertfordshire Regiment. He presented himself as older than his years, because only six months after his enlistment he was sent to France. At that time a recruit had to be nineteen before going overseas, but many young men falsified their age in their enthusiasm to serve and fight and Edward was one who did so. He had been posted to the 1/1st Hertfordshire Regiment, known as the "Hertfordshire Guards" and he disembarked in France on the 17th August 1915, going initially to a base camp at Rouen. The "Guards" had been in France with the 4th Guards Brigade since November of the previous year and in late October, Edward joined his unit at Beuvry close to Bethune.

Within days he saw action in the trenches, but it was to be a full year before he experienced the true horror of battle, when in October 1916, he fought in the Battle of Ancre Heights. This was followed in November by the Battle of Ancre, the last battle of the Somme campaign and thankfully Edward came through unscathed. At the end of July 1917, he fought in the opening engagement of the Battle of Ypres at Pilckem Ridge and again survived. During the next three months, Edward fought through the Ypres campaign at Langemark, Menin Road and Polygon Wood, before experiencing the horrors of the Second Battle of Passchendaele in late October. It was shortly after this that his good fortune deserted him when between the 1st and 3rd November Edward was one of five men gassed in the trenches and he was immediately taken down the line to 31 Ambulance Train for treatment.

The gassing resulted in a long period of recuperation for Edward and he was sent back to England, first to hospital and then a convalescent camp, where he remained until well enough to go back to France. He went overseas again on the 6th May 1918 and was now posted to the 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment which he joined on the 23rd of the month at Mirvaux near Amiens. He was soon back in the trenches and at the end of June, his unit was on active operations northwest of Albert. The Battalion War Diaries recorded that over the first two days of July it suffered numerous casualties when some 105 men were Killed, Missing or Wounded.

Sadly Edward was amongst the men who died when a German shell hit his part of the trench and he was killed instantly.

Edward died on Tuesday, 1st July 1918.

His mother Alice had now lost her husband and all but one of her children and she and her oldest son Fred, continued with their business on St John’s Road until her retirement. Alice died in Dudswell, Northchurch in February 1958 aged ninety-two and she was buried in Kingshill cemetery in Berkhamsted.

Edward’s death was reported in the Hemel Gazette a month after he was killed.

The memorial at St Mary and St Joseph church in Boxmoor commemorates Edward who was a member of the congregation.

Edward is Remembered with Honour on the Pozières Memorial, Somme, France where his named is engraved on Panel 89 to 90.

He was 21 years old when he died.

Edward was eligible for the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal.