Name
Edgar Wormald Flinn
9 Nov 1894
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
13/11/1916
23
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Royal Field Artillery
50th Battery, 34th Brigade
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 1 A and 8 A.
France
Headstone Inscription
N/A
UK & Other Memorials
Memorial Plaque, St Lawrence Church, Bovingdon, Memorial Plaque, Memorial Hall, Bovingdon
Pre War
Edgar Wormald Flinn was born on 9 Nov 1894 and baptised on 2 Dec 1894 in Sawbridgeworth, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire son of Joseph and Elizabeth Maria Flinn (nee Hopkins). He had an older brother Gerald Flinn and stepsister Winifred Johnson.
His father died and his mother remarried to Frank Johnson. On the 1901 Census the family were living at Vidya, Canterbury Road, Herne Bay, Kent, where his stepfather was said to be 'living on own means'.
On the 1911 Census he was a boarder at the home of Charles and Alice Vernon at 42 St Mary's Road, Peckham, South East London and working as a Merchant's Clerk. His mother was listed on the 1911 Census as living at Parkhurst, Bovingdon, Herts. His brother and stepsister were living with her, but his stepfather was not named on the census form.
He emigrated to Canada, arriving on 28 Mar 1913 in St Johns, Newfoundland on the HMS Manitoba, and worked as a rancher. (His brother sailed from Bristol on the Royal Edward on 8 January 1913, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia).
Wartime Service
Edgar enlisted on 23 Nov 1914 at Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and initially served as Private 77823, 30th Bn. Canadian Infantry. He later obtained a commission in the Royal Field Artillery in September 1915 and was killed in action on the Somme on 13 November 1916.
He has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Additional Information
His mother received pay owing of £74 11s 0d. N.B. Some records have interpreted RF as Royal Flying Corps which is believed to be incorrect. His brother Gerald, who was working as a bank clerk at the Royal Bank in Edmonton enlisted on 18 September 1916 and served with the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Malcolm Lennox, Dick West, www.dacorumheritage.org.uk
