Edmund Charles Bartlett 1895-1918
Edmund Charles Bartlett was a distant cousin, my three x great
grandfather George Coombes being his great grandfather.
Edmund
was the second of eight children born to George Bartlett and Jane
Boxall who were married in in the autumn of 1892 in Northchapel,
Sussex. Their first child Annie was born the following autumn,
followed by Edmund two years later and George in 1896. By the time
Frederick was born in 1899, the family had moved to Haslemere where
they were to remain and where George found work as a dairyman. The
last four children were born after the turn of the century, Letsy in
1901, Leonard in 1903, Norah in 1905 and finally Alfred in 1908. All
of the children survived infancy apart from Alfred who died at birth.
Edmund
Charles grew up in Haslemere and after finishing school, worked as a
gardener before he enlisted on 4 Nov 1915 at Guildford.
He
re-attested in November 1915 and was assigned to the Royal Engineers
as a driver on 20th April 1916. Three weeks later he went to France
and on 29th June 1916 was charged with being absent from 3 o’clock
fatigues. He was fined two day’s pay.
On
23rd January 1918, a tragic turn of events was to befall Edmund, who
was safely behind the lines in the kitchen of a billet near Boulogne
with several other batmen and drivers. These men were acting as
servants to officers looking after them and their equipment, cooking
for them and driving them around. They were all cleaning revolvers
belonging to themselves and to their officers, when one of the men
asked for some live ammunition, presumably to check the gun was
working. He climbed up to the balcony of the house, fired the
revolver, then came back into the kitchen and put the gun on the
table. As he put it down, it fired, hitting Edmund Bartlett in the
chest and spine.
There
are witness statements from all of the men in the kitchen that
morning including this one from Edmund, written on February 2nd.
“On
the morning of the 23rd January 1918 I had just finished
my morning fatigue after which I went to my billet to talk in the
usual way. Not noticing what the other batmen were doing I sat down
at the table when a report of firearm rang out and I felt a pain in
my right breast. This is a true and correct statement of the event.”
Initially
he was reported as wounded but he died on 12th February in the 25th
General Hospital France. One of the statements reads “Negligently
shot by a comrade” Edmund was recorded as not to blame and a note
added that the person responsible was tried and convicted by Field
General Court Martial on 27 Jan 1918.
He
is buried in the churchyard at Neufchatel-Hardelot
Back
home the family suffered more tragedy with the death of Edmund’s
sister Norah at the end of 1918, sister Annie in 1921 and mother Jane
in 1924. His father George married again in 1931 and stayed in
Haslemere until he died in 1943.
In Memory of
Driver EDMUND CHARLES BARTLETT
136819, 67th Field Coy., Royal Engineers
who died age 23
on 12 February 1918
