Edmund Williams

On 5 November 1915, the 19th King’s Liverpool Regiment, their home training complete, crossed over to France. With them was Private Edmund Williams, and as they moved up towards the front line they stopped for a while at the village of Vignacourt.

Vignacourt was quite a nice little village, but it was an unfriendly village… because some of the troops had misbehaved themselves there and left the results of their misbehaviour behind.

In the billets there was this young girl, she might be 16 or 17 years old. She had what the French called le petit mal – in other words, slight epilepsy. She was far gone in pregnancy and the people looked at us and cursed us – because we took the blame for what the predecessors had done.

Vignacourt was the silent village. I think we could just – if we listened carefully, with the wind in the right direction – hear the boom from somewhere far away on the eastern horizon.

They would not have to wait long before they were introduced to the front line.

Edmund was born on 10 January 1894 in Formby, to a fairly well-off family. After studying chemistry at technical college, in September 1914 he had volunteered to join the 19th King’s Liverpool Regiment with his brother.