Edwin, a member of D Company, is listed as being killed in action on 26 Jul 1916. The 1st/7th Battalion War Diary for the 25th & 26th July 1916 are transcribed below.
War Diary 25th July 1916
Trenches [near Pozieres] 25/7/16: At 2.0am on the 25th, owing to a bombing attack on our left the Germans put up a very heavy barrage on our trenches which prevented our Company from coming up in time to make the attack before daylight so the scheme had to be abandoned. 2nd Lt Loveitt was killed by rifle fire whilst reconnoitring the ground in front preparatory to the attack.
During the whole of this tour from the 22/7/16 to the 27/7/16 Major Hanson was most conspicuous by the way in which he was always at the front organising and leading attacks and bombing raids.
At about 9am on this day after a short bombardment of the strong post by the Stokes Mortars we endeavoured to bomb up the trench but owing to the Germans heavy bombing etc we were unable to get past their barricade.
About 1.0pm the attack was organised & two Stokes guns were ordered to fire on the point for 5 minutes, bombing parties were to approach as near as possible undercover of the Stokes gunfire and we're then to rush the trench. Unfortunately for some reason (it is thought owing to the guns sinking in the soft ground) the Stokes bombs all fell short and killed about seven of our men and wounding about 10. Naturally this disorganised the bombing parties and all the men were very shaken.
Early in the evening D Coy relieved A Coy who then went to La Boissel. At about 8.0pm we had orders from Bdge to attack the strong point over the open and take it at all costs. Casualties for this day amounted to approximately 18 killed, 27 wounded and 22 missing [including William].
War Diary 26th July 1916
Trenches [near Pozieres] 25/7/16: At 1.30am 3 platoons of D Coy with Capt Hoskins & Lt. Abbott attacked over the open. The other Platoon under Lt. Caley bombed along the trenches at the same time a platoon of C Coy under Lt. Murray bombed along the trench from X.4.a.3.6 to meet the other parties. All parties arrived at the strongpoint simultaneously and drove the enemy out capturing about a dozen prisoners some of which were wounded.
The bombing parties then proceeded up the trench to X.3.b.8.9 and along to R.34.c.2.1 where they got in touch with the ANZACS. The party then pushed onto X.33.d.6.7 where we drove a large number of the enemy out into the open causing considerable casualties with rifles and bombs and capturing 4 more prisoners. Two German officers were killed up this trench.
The Germans then were rallied under an officer and prepared to counter attack and our party withdrew as they had passed their objective. Later a strong point was made at X.3.b.2.7.
The Battn were relieved about 2pm by the 1/8th R. War. R and went to La Boissel.
