Poppy In memoriam Poppy

Lieutenant Edward Myles Meredith

 

 

Meredith

 

Edward Myles Meredith was born in Dublin City about 1893, the first of three children of police constable Charles Henry Meredith and his wife Jane (nee Young). His brother George Thomas died in 1900, age 1 year, and his other brother Charles Henry died two years later, aged five. By 1911 he was living with his father (by then retired) and mother at Tankardstown, County Carlow.

Meredith enlisted in the North Irish Horse on 2 April 1915 (No.1470). He rose to the rank of sergeant and in 1916 applied for a commission. On 26 September 1916 he was appointed 2nd lieutenant and posted to the General List, for duty with the Royal Flying Corps.

On 13 October he was posted to Oxford and on 9 December to the Cheltenham School of Aviation. On 25 April 1917 he was posted to the No.8 Reserve Squadron. Six weeks later he was injured, taking him out of active duty for three months.

Meredith married Annie Elizabeth Gray of Bloomfield House, Church Street, Antrim, at the Second Antrim Church on 14 December 1917.

On 26 March 1918 Meredith was promoted to lieutenant and eleven days later embarked for France, where he joined 21 Squadron at La Lovie on the Ypres front. The squadron was flying R.E.8s in an artillery spotting and reconnaissance role. On 13 April 21 Squadron moved to a new base at St Inglevert. On that day Meredith was killed in a flying accident at or near the Droglandt airfield while transporting an R.E.8 to the new base. His flying companion, 2nd Lieutenant Austin Edward Heyes, died of his injuries the following day.

Meredith was buried in the Haringhe (Bandaghem) Military Cemetery, Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, grave II.B.8. The gravestone inscription reads:

SECOND LIEUTENANT
E. M. MEREDITH
ROYAL AIR FORCE
13TH APRIL 1918

 

Note: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission incorrectly shows Meredith's rank as Second Lieutenant.

Gravestone image kindly provided by Mick McCann, through his British War Graves website www.britishwargraves.co.uk. Image of Lieutenant Meredith from the Larne Times, 11 May 1918, kindly provided by Nigel Henderson, Researcher at History Hub Ulster (www.greatwarbelfastclippings.com).