BORN – Dolanog
HOMEFRONT – Place / Occupation / WMDolanog
JOB – Blacksmith
UNIT – A Battery, 99 Brigade Royal Field Artillery
RANK – Shoeing Smith 146519
THEATRE – Macedonia / Salonika 23 General Hospital.
DIED – Died of Malaria 02 October 1916. Aged 40.
BURIED – Lembit Road, Military Cemetery, Salonika. (CWGC)
Lewis J (Jones) Edmunds was born in 1875 and brought up in Dolanog. His father was Josiah Edmunds and was the blacksmith at Dolanog. His mother was Jane Edmunds. His was a large family – Eleanor, Joseph, Ann, Edmond, Josiah, Charles(died 1897) and David and sisters Edith and Mary – not all survived into adulthood. In 1891 he was at Dolanog Smithy and had started work as a blacksmith, his brother David became a wheelwright. Lewis took over the forge from his father who died in 1902, his mother would die in 1909. They were well known and respected throughout Dolanog. By 1911 the two brothers were working for themselves at the Smithy, staying with them was their married sister Mary Jones – by about 1920 she is recorded in CWGC details as living in Walthamstow. His other sister, Edith would also marry but move to live at West Felton. Lewis’ obituary records that David was still at Dolanog and another sister ‘Mrs Hugh Pugh’ (Eleanor or Ann) and living at 32 Ash Road in Oswestry, .
Lewis volunteered and enlisted at Welshpool probably mid-1915 and joining the Royal Field Artillery first as a driver and then, making use of his civilian job, becoming a Shoeing Smith. Blacksmiths were essential to keep the horses up and running as the principal form of transport, in this case to pull artillery guns and limbers. Along with other trades, recruiting advertisements for Blacksmiths would appear in local newspapers (BCA DATE Advert picture). His unit, part of 22 Division, had originally gone over to France in early September 1915 but in October had been moved to Salonika. He spent time in the UK at Woolwich and was then posted to Egypt and from there to Salonika in early 1916.
Lewis died of dysentery at 23 General Hospital, Salonika on 2 October 1916. He was buried with military honours the next day at Lembit Road Military Cemetery, Salonika. His sister Mary gave the inscription ‘Gone from me but not forgotten, never shall thy memory fade’ Lewis is also commemorated on the war memorial at Dolanog.
Shoeing a mule, Salonika – a scene that Lewis would have been familiar with. (IWM Photographs)
Acknowledgements.
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