CFHS code : MC11
Parish : St Michael
Inscription : In Loving Memory of WILLIAM JOHN EDWARDS d Feb 21st 1931 aged 55
Monument : Kerb stones/Urn
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Lat Lon : 52.202589, 0.13798261 – click here for location
Monument
Inscription
‘In Loving Memory of WILLIAM JOHN EDWARDS d Feb 21st 1931 aged 55 years’
William John Edwards (c.1876 – 21 February 1931)
William was the son of Police constable William Edwards and Lucy. He was born in the King’s Cross area of London and grew up up Lambeth. He worked as a telegraph messenger, before joining the Cambridge Police force, where he was PC number 22. One of his earliest appearances in court was with regard to ‘stranger’ George Mitchell in November 1903. George had been found asleep on Donkey’s Common [sic] ‘without any visible means of subsistence’ and at court was convicted and discharged.
William married Alice Jane Rust (1877-1965) in 1904 and they had four children: William Stanley (1905-1986), Percy John (1907-1908), Ernest George (1909-1995) and Alfred Walter (1911-1991). The famly lived at 39 Vinery Road (1911) and later 24 Rathmore Road. He took part in rifle competitions in his spare time and in August 1909 took part in the ‘Town and County of Cambridge and Isle of Ely Miniature Rifle Assocation’ competition which took place on Coldham Common Range,and William finished 3rd in the Tyros’ Competition. William also played the side drums in the Borough Police Band, and is known to have joined the Army in September 1915. He returned to Cambridge after service.
He was Secretary of the Police Fancy Dress Ball, which took place in January 1920 at the Guildhall. The ball started at 9pm and continued into the early hours. The Cambridge Daily News reported ‘Pierrot and pierrette, Uncle Sam, a chapped and sombreroed senors of Mexico, a Spanish caballero, complete even to the Grand Banner, various dainty harlequins and other gauzy, indefinite little folk of a surpassing daintiness and an awe-inspring Mephistopeles in traditional and lurid crimson – they were all there in their brightest and deadliest war paint at the fancy dress ball’. William Edwards died at home aged 55 years old.
Sources:
Ancestry
Newspaper archives
by Claire Martinsen
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