Grocer's son Manning Edwards was an upright and dependable young man with a strong Christian faith when he was called up in September 1917 to enlist in the Army. He had been told that by attesting before his 18th birthday he would be able to choose what branch of HM Forces he wanted to join, but this was not to be. After basic training he was drafted into the Royal West Surrey Regiment as an infantryman - fighting in the hellish battlefields of Northern France as the war drove to its bloody close.
He had so many narrow escapes from certain death that he began to feel he had a guardian angel; by the time of the armistice on 11 November, 1918 most of the comrades who had joined up with him had been killed.
As a young lance corporal with no reserved occupation back in Blighty, he was not demobilised until well into 1919.
In his old age, with remarkable recall of events and places, he wrote up his wartime memories in a book which was found by his family after his death. In it he gave a worm's eye view of the conflict, describing how he obeyed his orders as required but was often puzzled by them and privately questioning of the carnage they created.
He wrote: "I cannot say I felt particularly brave before going into action. I sometimes wondered where my little wooden cross would stand. I certainly did not relish a hand-to-hand encounter. My job was to infiltrate and push forward to an agreed limit of advance. Most certainly I bore no hatred towards enemy infantry and would not have used my rifle save in self-defence or on behalf of a comrade. It was for other branches of the army to consolidate our advance.
“In carrying the dead, I thought it queer that we were carrying entirely unknown strangers from another company of the battalion: I would never be able to let their relatives know.
“We left our fallen comrades at certain places but we never knew where the bodies were interred. It seemed terrible to us when we knew some had been killed by our own artillery.”
Frederick Manning Edwards (1899-1978), known as "Manning", was born in Cambridgeshire, the son of a grocer and pork butcher. He had just matriculated at Luton Grammar School and was working for his father when he was called up to serve in the First World War. When he left the Army in 1919 he also entered the grocery trade, running his own general stores and village post offices in various parts of the East Midlands. He and his wife retired to Guilsborough, Northamptonshire where he gardened, took up oil painting and enjoyed following the Pytchley and Grafton Hunts. He helped to man the local fishing club and was treasurer of the British Legion.
Everywhere Manning lived he joined the local C of E church and soon became a staunch and respected member of the congregation. He never swore. He was always ready with help and advice, and was well-regarded for this. He also loved the countryside and its natural history.