2nd Lt. PIERS EDGCUMBE (1914-1940) June 2022
In March last year I wrote that after 17 years of investigation it had been established that a grave with a headstone bearing the words A SOLDIER OF THE 1939-1945 WAR – AN OFFICER actually contained the body of 2nd Lt. Piers Edgcumbe #2378 and that he was to be given a new headstone which accurately marks his final resting place.
On 27th May this year his grave in Esquelbecq Military Cemetery, France was rededicated 82 years to the day after he was killed. His new headstone bears an inscription chosen by his family which reads:
Whatsoever is true, noble, pure, generous and of good report: these things he pursued wholeheartedly.
Alongside family, the service of rededication was attended by representatives of the British Embassy, serving soldiers of The Royal Lancers (Queen Elizabeth’s Own) who made up a Lance Guard and representatives of Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. Born at Hatfield Place in Hertfordshire he was described as being blessed with considerable gifts both intellectual and athletic and having a degree in Engineering he was employed in his father’s Electrical Engineering business Everett, Edgcumbe and Co when he enlisted in March 1939.
The large number of family members who attended included his nieces, Lady Rosamund Woodard #858, Penelope Douglas-Riley #857, Caroline Weatherby #2946 and his nephew Piers McCausland #2985. It was to Lady Woodard that the Union Flag which would have covered Piers’ coffin was given for safe keeping at the end of a moving ceremony which took place in bright sunlight.
Anthony Cobbold.
