Peterborough & The Great War

Biography

Edward was born in Middlesbrough on 26 October 1886, the youngest of nine children of Joseph and Judith (nee Swinburne) McLauchlan.  In 1911, he was living at 9 Imeson Terrace, Middlesbrough with his parents and sister Daisy.  He was listed as Assistant Borough Surveyor with Middlesbrough Corporation and his father was a colliery agent with a firebrick manufacturer.

Edward joined the Institute of Civil Engineers in December 1913 having qualified in the October.

Edward enlisted with the Royal Naval Divisional Engineers on 22 September 1914, and served in Egypt in 1915. Later, Edward attended Cambridge Officer Cadet Battalion and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, Yorkshire Regiment on 25 January 1917, attached to the Royal Engineers.  Edward relinquished his commission on 18 August 1919 due to ill health as a result of wounds.  He was awarded the Royal Navy 1915 Star, British War and Allied Victory Medals.  His recorded home address was 9 Queens Road, Middlesborough.

Edward passed through Peterborough East Station on 28 December 1916 and wrote in the visitors’ book “A haven of rest and comfort for the weary traveller” and also stated that he was a Cadet at Christs’ College, Cambridge.

Edward married Rose Fuguel in Middlesbrough in 1918, and they had three children; Margaret born in 1919, Joan (1924) and Alan (1926), the younger two were born in Great Yarmouth.

Following his work with Middlesbrough Corporation, Edward became Senior Town Planning Assistant in Swansea, then Deputy Borough Engineer and Surveyor in Great Yarmouth and in the 1939 Register he is listed as surveyor and water engineer at Ipswich County Borough and living at Queenscliffe, Kesteven Road, Ipswich.

In 1957, Edward and Rose were on a passenger list for SS Saxonia, returning from Montreal, Canada, giving their home address as 19 Southfields Road, Eastbourne.  Other journeys included sailings on the New York in 1959 returning from Funchal, Madeira and in 1960 aboard the Sylvania from Montreal again.

At some point, possibly at retirement age, Edward and Rose moved to Eastbourne where Edward died on 6 August 1963 at St Mary’s Hospital, aged 77.

Please get in touch if you can tell us more about Edward and his family.