Military Medal : Bombardier Alfred Lawrence Edwards, 53 Battery, 14 Field Artillery Brigade, AIF

Military Medal (Geo V). Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

Born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1894, Alfred Lawrence (Laurie) Edwards was studying theology, aiming to become a Methodist Minster when he enlisted in the AIF on 8 November 1915, aged 23. Posted as a trooper, service number 1961, to reinforcements for the 9th Light Horse Regiment, Edwards sailed from Adelaide on 10 February 1916, aboard HMAT A69 Warilda. Soon after his arrival in Egypt he transferred to 53rd Battery, 14th Field Artillery Brigade as part of the re-organisation of the AIF.

In April 1917 Edwards was awarded the Military Medal for his work in assisting to extinguish a fire in an ammunition dump near Morchies, France, as well as being promoted to corporal. The recommendation for the award reads: Awarded Military Medal 23rd April 1917 at Morchies, France. Citation reads as follows 'On 23rd. April the 53rd. Battery position at MORCHIES was subjected to very heavy shelling, and a large ammunition dump caught fire. It was burning fiercely when Bombardier EDWARDS, at great personal risk, assisted in extinguishimh [sic] the flames, and helped to save a considerable amount of ammunition'.

Edwards was killed in action at Hellfire Corner, near Ypres in Belgium on 4 September 1917. The report on his death, compiled by his Battery, stated that: ...'he was killed in action on the morning of 4th Sept. 1917 at about 11 o'clock. He was in a "pill-box" together with others near Hell Fire Corner in the YPRES area, when an enemy high explosive shell hit the dugout, the roof collapsing with the force of the explosion, burying the occupants of the dugout. Death in the case of Cpl. Edwards must have been instantaneous ...'. Edwards was initially buried near the dugout but his body was exhumed at the end of 1919 and is now buried in the Birr Cross Roads Cemetery, Belgium.

This Military Medal was sent to Edwards' parents at the end of 1917, together with a request that receipt be acknowledged. His mother, Eveline, responded, 'We are very pleased and delighted to have our brave boy's lovely medal, it is indeed very beautiful and how proud he would have been to have been able to return and wear it, but God willed it otherwise, and now our brave Laurie has gone home to be with his Heavenly Father.'