Christ College Remembers . . . Private Edwin Charles Trew

REMEMBRANCE DISPATCH No. 45 COMMEMORATES PRIVATE EDWIN CHARLES TREW (DAY BOY 1890-1892) WHO DIED 3^RD AUGUST 1918.

Edwin Charles Trew was born in 1876 and attended Christ College as a Day Boy from 1890 to 1892. He lived and grew up just over the bridge from Christ College in Ship Street. His father was a butcher, from a family of butchers who had been in business in Brecon for more than a hundred years.

He does not seem to have taken a particularly active part in games while at school, and his name does not appear in The Breconian.

After leaving school, Edwin Charles began his working life as a bank clerk in Staffordshire. By 1915 he had moved back to Wales and was employed as a bank cashier in Swansea. He enlisted in Swansea in September 1915, joining the 1st Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). His first period of duty was on home service; he arrived in France on 21st September 1917. He took part in the Cambrai advance in November and December 1917 and was awarded the Military Medal in for rescuing a wounded soldier from No Man’s Land under machine gun fire.

He was twice wounded, the second time ‘copping a blighty’ and evacuated to England. After his recovery, he returned to France in the build up to the Battle of St Quentin (which commenced on 21st March 1918). Less than five months later, he sustained a thigh wound from a shell casing and died on 3rd August 1918.

His younger brother, Melville George Trew, 15th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, had been killed in Belgium just under a year earlier on 18th September 1917.

Private Edwin Charles Trew is buried in the Esquelbecq Military Cemetery, France. His headstone bears the words chosen by mother: ‘Peace Perfect Peace’. He is also remembered on the Christ College War Memorial.