35-year-old Private Edwin Guy Silk was killed in action on 20th September 1918 whilst serving with the 14th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Edwin was the youngest of the five known children of parents Edwin (a coal merchant) and Eleanor Maria (née Prosser) who had married in Coleshill in 1875. A sixth child had died in infancy.
The family seem to have initially set up home in Over Whitacre, where their eldest child – Eleanor Edwina (1876-1953) was born, moving to Aston by 1877 when their second child, Arthur Guy (1877-1972) was born.
They had moved to High Street, Solihull by 1879, when their daughter Mary Marguerite (1879-1975) was born, and remained their until their respective deaths in 1925 and 1926.
Edwin Guy Silk (apparently known as Ted) and his older brother, Arthur, joined their father’s coal merchant business in Curzon Street Wharf, Birmingham. Ted is known to have been educated at Solihull Grammar School and King Edward’s School.
On the outbreak of war, Ted was one of the first to join the Birmingham Pals, receiving the regimental number 80. He first entered a Theatre of War on 21st November 1915.
In 1917 he married Ethel Margaret Meadowcroft at Aston. He was the only one of the five siblings to have married and is not known to have had any children. His widow married Charles Harvey Godfrey in 1922 and moved to Crewe, where she died in 1953.
Private Edwin Guy Silk was killed in action on 20th September 1918 and is buried at Canadian Cemetery No. 2 Neuville St. Vaast, France. He is commemorated locally on Solihull war memorial, and on the roll of honour of Avenue Bowling Club.
If you have any further information, please let us know.
Tracey
Heritage & Local Studies Librarian
Tel.: 0121 704 6977
email: heritage@solihull.gov.uk
Solihull Life 
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