Edgar Williams – Welsh Regiment, 1/4th Battalion

Company Quartermaster Serjeant Edgar Williams – Welsh Regiment, 1/4^th Battalion

Very little documentary information survives concerning the early life of Edgar Williams.

Military Service

Edgar served with the Welsh Regiment, 1/4^th Battalion, a Territorial Force unit that, by 1917, functioned primarily as a reinforcement and support battalion. Rather than serving continuously as a single front-line formation, its men were frequently posted individually or in drafts to other battalions of the regiment engaged in active operations overseas.

As a Company Quartermaster Serjeant, Edgar held a senior non-commissioned appointment, responsible for company stores, equipment, and logistical administration. Such duties often required travel with men and supplies, including overseas movement by sea.

Welsh Regiment, 1/4^th Battalion — 4^th May 1917

On 4 May 1917, personnel of the 1/4^th Battalion were serving across the Mediterranean theatre, with many soldiers in transit by sea between Britain, training depots, and operational areas such as Egypt, Salonika, and Italy. Maritime travel at this stage of the war was extremely dangerous, with transport vessels exposed to enemy submarines, mines, and naval attack.

It was during these hazardous transit conditions that Edgar Williams lost his life at sea on 4^th May 1917. His death was not the result of land combat but occurred during wartime movement, a reminder of the constant risks faced by servicemen even away from the battlefield.

Death and Commemoration

Edgar Williams
Savona Memorial, Italy
credit - findagrave

Edgar Williams has no known grave and is commemorated on the Savona Memorial, which records the names of British soldiers who died at sea in the Mediterranean theatre during the First World War.

His commemoration reflects the wider reality of the conflict, in which danger was ever-present—whether in the trenches, on active service, or during the perilous journeys that sustained the war effort