Selected Biography

Warner, Edward Thomas – Born: Euston, Suffolk on 10.12.1916.[1]  Parents: Walter Warner (Police Constable, later Farmer at Rodbridge) and Alice Elizabeth [née Parr].  Home: Police Station, Euston, Norfolk (1921), Sowerby Green Farm, Suffolk (1939), Rodbridge Lodge, Rodbridge, Long Melford [1939 to 1943].  Occupation: Horseman on Farm (1939), Horseman on Rodbridge Farm, Long Melford [1943].  Service Record: Edward was a member of the Local Defence Volunteers in Long Melford from 1939, being part of ‘H’ Company, 10^th Battalion, Suffolk Home Guard when it was formed in August 1942.  His name is recorded in the official tribute to the organization entitled The Lion Roared his Defiance, photographed in and around Long Melford.[2]  Died: Edward’s lifeless body was found on the morning of 21.1.1943 by his sister Beatrice, hanging in the chaff-house at Rodbridge Farm.  At the subsequent Coroner’s Inquest, the deceased’s physician Dr Tylor stated that Warner had asked him for his help in obtaining a certificate of release from the Home Guard on the grounds that his left leg was wasted and the foot deformed, making it both difficult and painful when marching and performing his military duties.  It is not recorded if such a document was precured.  The verdict of the Inquest was that death was due to strangulation by hanging adding that Edward had taken his life whilst the balance of his mind was disturbed.[3]

Notes – [1] 1939 Register.  [2] Published by Marten & Son, Ltd., of Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk in 1946.  [3] ‘A Good Workman who tried to do his duty, found dead at Melford’ – Bury Free Press 30.1.1943. My thanks to Leonie Strawbridge for sharing this photograph.