Page 70 - Sylvia Malt - Side by Side

On enlisting he was assigned to the Somerset Light Infantry and trained at Whitstable
before going to France about 12 months later. The 7th Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry
took part in several engagements including battles at Langemarck and Passchendaele.
Originally reported missing, his wife and mother had to wait over a year before Private
Edward Payne Thrift was officially declared dead.

Winifred Thrift was contacted by the British Red Cross early in 1919, who had heard that
her husband’s name had been on their lists for months and that they had asked all the men
of his unit whom they were able to see, both in English hospitals and at the bases abroad,
but none of them could throw any light on his whereabouts. The Red Cross had also
questioned some released prisoners but had learnt nothing.

The British Red Cross stated that their reports showed that on 30th November 1917, the 7th
Somerset Light Infantry were in action in Front of Cambrai. They took the time and trouble
to give the bereaved widow as much information as possible on what actually took place
leading up the day when he was last seen:

“On 20th November, a successful attack had been made by the British and considerable
ground had been gained with the help of tanks. About the 17th November, the German
resistance stiffened and on 30th November the enemy launched a determined counter
attack. According to an account from a man who took part: “we were attacking but lost
the ground. We were to the right of Masnieres. Officers and men of the 7th Somerset Light
Infantry put up a brilliant fight with the advancing Germans. They certainly helped some of
the remnants to get clear.”

The British Red Cross account concluded: “Shell fire was very heavy all day and it is easy
to believe that casualties were numerous and that the chances of bringing in the wounded
was small. Many prisoners were taken by the Germans and their names were subsequently
reported from Germany, but it is feared that nothing further can be heard of those who were
missing in November 1917.”

In Memoriam: Edward Thrift is remembered on the Cambrai Memorial in France.

Pte. George Henry TREE, 7th Battalion, Rifle Brigade
1885 - 31st December 1917

Born in London in 1885, George Henry Tree was the eldest son of George and Mary of Cray
Road, Foots Cray. Both father and son earned their living as basket makers. George Tree
senior, born in 1865, joined up as soon as war was declared even though he was 65-years-
of -age. He had been an old soldier, having served in the South African Wars with the
Transport Army Service Corp between 1877-79 and between 1885-87 he served in India with
the 1st Battalion, King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry). George (junior) married Constance,
a talented musician in 1912 and the couple set home in Orchard Villas, Foots Cray.

George Tree joined the Rifle Brigade on 8th June 1916, and was later sent to
France. During late December 1917 he became ill with nephritis and despite all the care
that the nursing staff were then able to offer, he grew steadily worse. The attending vicar
promised him that he would write to Constance to send her his love as he was then too ill
to do so. George grew steadily worse and sadly died on New Year’s Eve, 1917. Some
months after her husband’s death, Constance gave birth in 1918 to a son, naming him
George after her late husband.

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