Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

His brother, 4140 Pte. Edwin Guy Howell also of the 25th Battalion was killed in action on the same day 5 August 1916. 

#4139 HOWELL  Edgar Stanley                       25th Battalion
 
Edgar Howell was born in Bristol, England in 1890 to parents Edwin and Florence Howell. He attended Bristol Grammar School along with his elder brother Edwin Guy Howell. It would appear that Edgar emigrated around 1910. His name does not appear on any Queensland Immigration records so it is likely he landed in Sydney and made his way north. At enlistment, Edgar stated his occupation as labourer and given that he is commemorated on the Nanango War Memorial and that his family stated he was associated with Childers, it is likely that Edgar travelled around the South Burnett and Isis Districts seeking casual labouring jobs.
 
Edgar attended the Brisbane Recruiting Depot in Adelaide Street on 17th August 1915 where he was taken by the 6th reinforcements of the 11th Light Horse Regiment. He travelled to Sydney by train to embark on the “Mashobra”. From this point the narrative becomes rather confusing. It is possible that Edgar learnt that his brother Edwin, who had emigrated sometime after Edgar and had been working in the Maryborough district, had enlisted a month after Edgar. The brothers were quite close being less than two years apart in age and it is likely that Edgar requested a release from the Light Horse so that he could join his brother. Edgar and Edwin were accepted into the 10th reinforcements of the 25th Battalion with successive regimental numbers.
 
The Howell brothers embarked on the “Commonwealth” in Brisbane on 28th March 1916. Edgar had originally stated when he enlisted in 1915 that he was not married. By the time that he was ready to depart for overseas, he disclosed that he was married to Florence Howell (not to be confused with his mother of the same name) of Kent Street, New Farm, Brisbane. After a month at sea, both brothers were offloaded at Suez and placed in an isolation hospital with mumps. By the 14th May, the brothers had recovered and had been discharged to an infantry depot at Tel el Kabir. On 30th May, the reinforcements boarded a ship in Alexandria Harbour for the six-day crossing of the Mediterranean; arriving in Marseilles on 5th June. The reinforcements made their way to the large British Training and Transit camp at Havre to await allocation to their unit; the 25th Battalion as part of the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division AIF.
 
General Douglas Haig, Supreme British commander on the Western Front planned a major offensive for the summer of 1916 in the south of the British sector through the Somme River valley. It was to be the largest battle of the war so far, and was timed to commence on the 1st of July. The attack was a disaster, with the British suffering 60,000 casualties on the first day. In spite of this, Haig was determined to push on.  The 1st, 2nd and 4th Australian Divisions moved up to the staging areas near Albert in preparation for assignment to the Somme offensive. 
 
By the middle of July, Haig’s offensive had crept forward as far as the village of Pozieres, half way between Albert and Bapaume. Pozieres sat on the highest point of that part of the battlefield and was of vital strategic importance. Pozieres village was taken by the 1st Division on 23rd July. The second division’s objective was to build on the 1st Division’s success by taking a blockhouse which had been built on the site of a windmill above the village of Pozieres. The windmill was behind two lines of trenches. The attack, the first major offensive by the 7th Brigade since arriving in France, was to begin just after midnight on the 29th July. The attack was a failure, with the 25th Battalion suffering 343 casualties (from a strength of a little less than 1000 men).
 
Sir Hubert Gough, the British general in charge of the operation at Pozieres, gave the 2nd Division’s commander a chance to reinforce his depleted battalions before going back for another crack. Edgar and Edwin marched up from the reserve lines and were taken on by the 25th battalion on the 2nd August the same day that the second attack went forward. There is no way of knowing if the brothers were included in the second charge or whether they came in to the line once it the objective had been reached. A German counterattack on 5th August was repulsed and the windmill blockhouse was occupied.
 
The 2nd Division spent 12 days in the line at Pozieres and suffered almost 7000 casualties. Included in the casualty lists were Edgar and Edwin Howell, listed as wounded and missing.
The Military authorities in Melbourne (then the temporary national capital) and the Australian public at large were not prepared for the scale of casualties in July and August of 1916 and could not comprehend the fact that a man could simply be blown to pieces by artillery leaving no trace. The fate of many was to have been buried dead or alive by the relentless artillery onslaught. Casualty lists appeared in the newspapers on a daily basis. Families were provided with scant information by base records in Melbourne, which was relying on cable traffic which was often garbled.
 
Edgar’s wife, Florence wrote repeatedly to the authorities seeking information about her husband’s fate. She held on to the fanciful notion that he may have lost his memory and was lying in a hospital somewhere. Stories such as this were unfortunately common in the absence of any concrete facts. Florence conducted her own detective work and made contact with members of the 25th who had been sent back to Australia; in particular Privates Parker and Lee. Upon relaying this information to base records, she was informed that hearsay was “insufficient evidence to initiate enquiries.”
 
Enquiries by the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Service based in London did finally shed some light on the brother’s fate. It was stated that a witness saw Edgar and Edwin sharing a dugout with several others on 5th August, probably during the counterattack. The dugout was hit by a large calibre artillery shell killing all occupants. Subsequent artillery barrages probably churned up the ground removing all trace of the men or their equipment. Edwin Howell senior in Bristol also initiated enquiries regarding his sons.
 
Florence Howell in New Farm received a small parcel of Edgar’s personal effects; a wristwatch in a leather case popular with rural workers and a metal matchbox. A court of inquiry held almost 12 months after the horror of Pozieres determined that Edgar Howell had been Killed in Action on 5th August 1916. His body was never recovered. Florence was granted a pension of two pounds per fortnight. In 1927, Edgar’s parents emigrated to Australia and shared the house at Kent Street, New Farm with Edgar’s widow.
 
In 1937, as part of excavations on the Pozieres battlefield, the remains of two Australian soldiers in close proximity to each other were exhumed. As a result of forensic examination of identity discs close to the remains, the Imperial War Graves Commission determined that they were the remains of Edgar and Edwin Howell. Florence was sent a rather battered silver matchbox belonging to her husband that had been recovered during the exhumation. The brothers were both reinterred in the London East Extension Cemetery at Longueval. Two brothers who had been in uniform together and had lain together below the French soil for twenty years were finally laid to rest in the same cemetery.
 
On the site of the Pozieres windmill today is a commemorative stone which reads:
“The ruin of the Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle on this part of the Somme Battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefields of the war.”