Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

02/12/1915

Date of Discharge

10/07/1919

Place of Enlistment

Casula NSW

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Known as 'Eddie'

Place of Birth

Mount Keira NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Department of Home Affairs, Canberra ACT

Occupation

Public servant

Next of Kin

James Edwards (father), Balgownie NSW

Service Number

5684

Final Rank

2nd Lieutenant

Final Unit

1 Battalion AIF

Military Medal - awarded the Military Medal for his actions on 4 October 1917 during operations east of Ypres when, after its officer and NCO had been wounded, he led forward his platoon under heavy shell fire and in the face of strong machine gun fire. Later on, in spite of intense enemy shelling, he set to work to rescue three of his men who had been buried.

Edwards was originally from Wollongong and arrived in Canberra in 1914 as a clerk in the Department of Home Affairs, living in the Bachelor Quarters before and after the war. He enlisted on 5 November 1915 and served with the 1st Battalion in France and Belgium from September 1916 at Flers, Doignies, the Second Battle of Bullecourt, Menin Road, Broodseinde (where he earned the Military Medal), Passchendaele and Hazebrouck. Edwards was promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in 1918 before returning to Australia and being discharged on 10 July 1919.

After the war he was Chief Clerk of the Lands Department in the Federal Capital Commission and Commissioner for Housing in the Interior Department from 1943 to 1950. He died in Canberra on 28 November 1969 and was cremated at Norwood Park.

Description - height 5 feet 6½ inches, weight 135 pounds, chest 34 inches, sallow complexion, grey eyes, light brown hair, Methodist

Peter Procter, 'Biographical Register of Canberra and Queanbeyan', Canberra, Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 2001
National Library of Australia : Country Women's Association of NSW (Canberra Branch) History, 1959 (manuscript call no. NLA MS 734)
A.W. Edwards, 'My War Diary', 1920 (AWM Collections Record PR89/050)
Michael Hall, 'Ainslie and the Great War', Canberra Historical Journal (Dec. 2010), Canberra & District Historical Society
Canberra & District Historical Society photograph 2534
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'Ainslie Challenges the Kultur Club', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
AWM Honours & Awards
Queanbeyan Age - 25 January 1916, 2 June 1916, 9 October 1916, 31 October 1919, 28 November 1919
The Canberra Times - 29 November 1969
Sydney Mail - 4 August 1918
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)