Private Edgar William Parham

Edgar William Parham – summary prepared by Rod Grose.

Edgar William Parham was born in Gawler in South Australia.  He was a baker, aged 37 years and 7 months, when he enlisted in the Army in September 1915.  He was 5’2¼” (158cm) tall, and weighed 130 lbs (59kg).  He had a wife, and three children.

While on his final leave before departing from Australia, Edgar’s mother gave him a Bible, inscribed in the front with his name, and the words Mother and Australia.  He sailed from Australia on 7 February 1916, on the troopship Miltiades.

Edgar left from Alexandria, in Egypt, on 17 June 1916 on the troop ship Transylvania, bound for Marseilles, France, arriving there on 23 June 1916.  He was then assigned to the 32nd Battalion, of the 5th Division of the AIF.

The first battle engagement for the AIF in France was at the Battle of Fromelles, on 18/19 July, and his battalion was located on the eastern flank of the Allied lines.  The Battle was a disaster for all the Allies, especially for the Australians.  Edgar was posted as “missing” on 20 July 1916, and his family in Australia was advised of this on 29 August 1916.  Through international contacts in 1917, advice was received that he had died of his wounds on 20 July 1916, while in the care of German troops.

On the rear wall of the VC Corner Cemetery, near Fromelles, there are plaques which records the names of those Australian troops who fell at Fromelles, and who have no known grave.  The name PARHAM E. W. is one of those many hundreds of names. So many died, and yet the War was to continue for almost another two and a half years before the Armistice.

But there is a postscript to Edgar’s story.

In 1937, the Australian High Commission in London received a parcel from Germany, containing a Bible, with an enclosed letter.  The letter advised that the Bible has come from the writer’s German soldier brother, recently deceased.  The brother had been given the Bible by a dying Australian soldier during the War.  The writer asked that the Bible be returned to the mother who had given it to her soldier son - Edgar William Parham.

The Parham family were very grateful for this kind act, and sought details of the German brother, in order that they could write and thank him personally.

There the story ends.  But many in Australia and France remember the sacrifices they made, even 95 years after the event.