Current Information:

Age-30

88A, Clarence Buildings, Kentish Town Road, St Pancras

The 9th King’s Royal Rifle Corps battalion of 42 Brigade, 14th Division arrived in France on 19th May, 1915 and went into the trenches for the first time on 6th June when they were attached to 5th Division for trench training at St Eloi, in the southern part of the Ypres salient. On 16th June they marched to Ypres and the Lille Gate where they occupied trenches and dugouts. The next day 5th Division attacked the Bellewarde Ridge in the northern part of the salient and at 11am, 42 Brigade were ordered forward along the railway line to assembly trenches. As they moved up one they ran into some heavy shell fire and when they got to the new trenches they found them overcrowded and under fire. Nevertheless here they remained until relieved on the following morning and having sustained over 60 casualties. One of these was Edward Presswell.