Edward Albert Joseph Drake 1886 – 1949
Edward was the oldest of three sons born to Edward and Emily Ann (née Page), with his date of birth being 29th September 1886. He was baptised on 24th October 1886 at St John the Evangelist in Stoke next Guildford. His father was working as a porter but by 1891 had moved the family to Islington in London, where he was employed as a fishmonger.
The family transferred between this date and the next census in 1901, when they were living at 66 Union Road in Dover. Edward was 14 at this stage. Edward joined the Army between this date and 1908, when he married Lily Simmons on the 1st September at St Michael’s in Aldershot. He was living at Mandora Barracks in Aldershot, and was a soldier aged 22. Lily’s address was the Civil Isolation Hospital in Aldershot.
In the 1911 Census, they are shown living with Edward’s family at 22 Minerva Road in Dover and the record states that Edward was a lance corporal. By this time, they had a daughter, Lily May, aged 2, who had been born in Aldershot. It would appear that Edward then left the army, as in 1913 he, Lily and Lily May are to be found in Shepherdswell, living at Bridge House. Edward was employed as an insurance agent for the Prudential. Their son Edward was born that year in February.
Although no records of his War service can be attributed to Edward with certainty, there are a couple of possibilities for him having served in the Army Ordnance Corps as a lance corporal and/or sergeant. The 1939 Register encourages this suspicion and if this information is correct, then he had a period of hospitalisation in 1915 with influenza.
Following the War, Edward returned to his job. The family moved to Thornlea on the Eythorne Road around 1928, with local directories not listing him in the village after 1937. His daughter married in Shepherdswell in 1933. The 1939 Register showed that Edward was at the Ordnance Depot in Folkestone Road, Dover, with three other men. He was an ordnance clerk, grade 3, for the War Department.
It has not been determined where his wife was at this stage. Edward died at the age of 62 in Horley, Surrey on 14th March 1949 and was buried at St Bartholomew’s, Horley, four days later. His address at death was 77 Hevers Avenue Horley and probate went to his widow, Lily.