Edgar William Colebrook – Royal Engineers

Sapper Edgar William Colebrook – Royal Engineers

Early Life and Family Background

Albert William Colebrook and Edith Sarah Price marriage certificate St. Mark's Church, Swansea

Edgar William Colebrook was born in 1919 in Swansea, the son of Albert William Colebrook and Edith Sarah Price, who married in 1914 at St Mark’s Church, Swansea. The Colebrook family belonged to the industrial districts surrounding the docks, where fuel work, shipping, and labouring trades shaped daily life.

1921 Census – Colbourne Terrace, Swansea

1921 Census

In the 1921 Census, the Colebrook family were recorded at 36 Colbourne Terrace, Swansea. Albert William, aged 30, worked as a Fuel Worker Shipper for Graigola, King’s Dock, Swansea. His wife, Edith Sarah, aged 29 and born in Wiltshire, kept the home. Their children present were Albert William, aged 5; Edgar, aged 2; and Elsie Margaret, aged 2. The census captures a young family in the early post‑war years, with Edgar still a toddler in a busy dockside household.

Edgar William Colebrook
Cwmgelli Cemetery, Swansea
credit - findagrave

Second World War Service

As a young man, Edgar enlisted in the Royal Engineers, serving as a Sapper. Men of the Royal Engineers carried out essential military engineering tasks — construction, fortification, transport, and technical support — forming one of the backbone units of the British Army during the war.

Death and Burial

Edgar died at Ruthin, Denbighshire, on 15 May 1942, aged just twenty‑three. His body was brought home to Swansea, where he was buried at Cwmgelli Cemetery, joining the growing roll of Second World War servicemen laid to rest there.