No.49601, Private, Edward Amos CLAYDON
Aged 18
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Edward Amos Claydon was born in Dullingham in 1899 (Newmarket Q4-1899 3B:491), son of Edward R. and Jessie CLAYDON (née DAINES).
1901 census...Aged 1, he was at Ley Cottages, Stetchworth, with his father Edward R. CLAYDON [25] horse keeper on farm, born Linton and his mother Jessie [20] born in Cheveley. 1911 census...Aged 11, he was at Stetchworth Ley with his parents and sisters Olive [9], Dorothy [7], Elsie [6] and Constance [4] and brother Laurence [2]. All his younger siblings were born in Stetchworth Ley. |
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He enlisted in Cambridge. Edward was one of the "Men of 18 in 1918". These were boys the Army sent out to France as soon as they were 18 , after a few months training. On the morning of the 18th September 1918, the 6th Northants attacked German machine gun positions at Ronssoy. Twelve German machine guns and a field gun were set up in the village of Ronssoy, which was attacked by two companies of the Northamptons ("B" and "C" ). Ronssoy is shaped like a "T", the attack being made from Bois du Ronssoy against the left hand spur of the "T". "B" Company was on the right, faced with the machine guns in the village (where the Rue de la Liberation is now) with "C" Company on the left attacking the less heavily defended section outside the village. During the battle Allan Leonard Lewis of "B" Company was awarded the Victoria Cross for single-handedly destroying two machine guns that were firing along the line of the Northamptons advance from the British right (the vertical of the "T"). The 6th Northants had 42 killed in this attack, but due to the more mobile phase of the war, only 13 have unidentified graves. |
photo: Rodney Gibson
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