NameEdgar HYDE , 66
Birth1891
DeathKilled in Action 1916
Notes for Edgar HYDE
Intended to to be a fruit farmer in California but returned from USA to join up in 1914 and enlisted in the 10th East Yorks and was the second man to be killed on the Somme soon after the Battalion went into action.
Email from Sophie Clement-Jones
20 November 2008
Hello everyone,
I thought you might be interested to know that I managed to find Edgar's grave on my way back from the cottage this week, (thanks to the incredible work of the exhumation and identification parties after WW1, the Commonwealth War Graves Commision and the wonders of the internet.)
Sucrerie Cemetery is quite a bit south of Arras and to the north of Albert, and unlike some of the other cemeteries along that road which are crammed right onto the road, it lies quite a bit off the road which makes it seem more peaceful and completely surrounded by sugarbeet fields. You approach it down a rough farm track and from a distance it could be a rural church yard in the UK, with its low surrounding wall and tall trees dominating the actual graveyard.
You have to pace up and down the rows quite a bit to find the right name, passing so many unnamed soldiers (about 200 in this cemetery) and a few that were executed for desertion. According to the visitors book one Lt. Col. had told his mother he would look after her.....
Anyway, there he was. I planted a yellow rose by his headstone (tried to get a white one for peace and for Yorkshire but the nursery in Neufchatel didnt have one so yellow it was (perhaps remembrance is a better sentiment at this stage anyway) and left a message in the visitors book.
It is such a shame Len wasnt able to find his brother's grave when he went. There's no one left who remembers him now of course but Mum (Jean) says that her mother Marion used to talk about him quite a lot. If Len was the serious one in the family Edgar was the joker. He kept a pet duck in a shed that followed him everwhere.
He came back from the US with Len (who was on holiday over there at the time) when war broke out .They both changed their names from Heidrich to Hyde and then joined up.
I'd also quite like to find Dorothy's husband, John Andrews but there are thousands of J and John Andrews listed on CWGC. Mum thinks he might have been an officer. Anyway he came from a snobby family in Hull, according to Mum. The Andrews treated Dorothy very badly after the war (possibly because she had a German name) and she lived on a war widows pension and gifts from her own family. She died aged 94.