10690 Serjeant Edgar WIlliam PIKE (d. 9 March 1919)

Died on 9 March 1919 of Valvular Disease of the Heart

Ian Valentine based on research by Mary Norris

Wivenhoe Cemetery Bellevue Road
Photo from Commonwealth War Graves Commission

10690 Sergeant Edgar WIlliam Pike was born in 1893, the son of William (Mariner – Yachtsman)  & Caroline, living at 8 Blyths Lane, Wivenhoe at the time of the 1901 & 1911 Censuses.  He worked as a Boilermaker’s labourer.   He is included in a list in the Essex County Standard [ECS] on 24th October 1914 of those who were the first to enlist.

He served in the Essex Regiment and went to France on 25th July 1915.  The ECS of 4th March 1916 quotes from a letter from France, dated 19 February 1916, he wrote to Jimmy Moore, a local grocer:-  “I should like to tell you and the people of Wivenhoe that the lads of the village are doing very well out here and are doing good work with the Colours.  We are up to our waists in mud and water, but why should we care, for we know we are doing our bit for our country?  I should also like to tell you that we receive nothing from any club or institute.  Tell the people of Wivenhoe not to forget us, for I see that the terriers (territorials) are well looked after.”       Signed Lance-Corpl. Pike

The ECS dated 30th March 1918  reported he “has recently been home on leave from France, [and] has this week been honoured by receiving a scrip inscribed as follows:- “The 29th division, Gallipoli 1915-16, Somme 1916-17, Arras 1917, Ypres 1917, Cambrai 1917.  I have read with much pleasure of your devotion to duty in the field on 30 Nov., 1917, and have caused your name and deed to be entered in the record of the 29th Division.”

He returned home sometime before his death on 9th March 1919 of Valvular Disease of the Heart possibly at the Regimental Depot in Billericay.

A CWGC Headstone in Portland stone erected in Wivenhoe New Cemetery is inscribed: “10690 SERJEANT / E.W.PIKE / ESSEX REGIMENT / 9TH MARCH 1919”.  He is named on Wivenhoe War Memorial, and was awarded the British War & Victory Medals.

This page was added on 22/01/2016.

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