Name
Cyril Arthur Edmondson
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/11/1916
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Hood Bn. R.N. Div.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Mentioned in Despatches
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
ANCRE BRITISH CEMETERY, BEAUMONT-HAMEL
IV. A. 26.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Not on the Weston memorials, Name inscribed on the Memorial Bells, Memorial Community Church, Barking Road, London E13
Additional Information
His brother Percival was killed in action in the First World War.
Their mother was a supporter of the Memorial Community Church, Plaistow, who opened the new building in 1922 and dedicated the bells as a war memorial in 1925.
The Bells of Memorial Community Church, Plaistow (formerly Memorial Baptist Church).
The Memorial Church building was built after the First World War, and its east tower holds a unique ‘chime’ consisting of ten bells, which are cast with the names of local men who were killed in the war. The cost of the bells was provided by subscribers who donated "not less than one shilling". Cards were issued with the name of a man, his rank, where killed and when.
The chime of ten pealing bells was made by Gillett and Johnston of Croydon, installed in 1925 and cost £1000. The heaviest weighs 9cwt and the total weight of bell metal is nearly two tons. The bells are not the traditional English bells played with ropes. They are fixed in position, and played with a hand clavier – a bit like a keyboard without the keys – that moves the clappers to strike the bells.
When they were first installed they also had an “electro-pneumatic tune-playing machine” which played hymns automatically using rolls of paper – a bit like a Pianola. It would also strike the hour automatically.
The bells are a war memorial and have names of 201 men who fell in the First World War cast into them. This is the largest number of names cast into a set of bells anywhere in the UK, possibly the world.
