Lt Col Edmund Furse, RFA

Lieutenant Colonel Edmund William Furse of 88th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, died on the 19th May 1918. He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, the eldest son of Edmund Furse of Alphington, Frimley, and the husband of Jessie C Furse of 21, Halsey Street, Chelsea, London. He was 41 years old when he died and is buried in Dormans French National Cemetery.

Edmund Furse had arrived in France with the Royal Artillery on the 20th August 1914. He was an army major at that stage and would later become captain and then temporary (according to his medal index card) lieutenant colonel. He was attached to the Royal Flying Corps at the time of his death and his connections with the RFC certainly date back to 1914. His MIC notes that from 18th November 1914 he was to be "GSO 3rd Grade, Royal Flying Corps Headquarters" and in October 1915 he was elected as a member of The Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom. An earlier edition of the Royal Aero Club's magazine had noted (on 17th September 1915) that Major Furse had obtained his aviator's certificate (number 1706) in a Maurice Farman Biplane at the British Flying School at Le Crotoy, France on the 8th September that year.

Lieutenant Colonel Furse's Legion d'Honneur was gazetted in the Supplement to the Edinburgh Gazette dated 3rd May 1917. At that stage, his rank was major in the Royal Artillery.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Flight Global Archive