2nd Lieutenant Edward Francis de Faye

Tank Corps

Died: 1st December 1917
Age: 25

Edward Francis de Faye, third son of FG de Faye, of David Place and La Rocque, Jersey, was born on 31st May, 1892, and entered [Victoria] College at the age of ten. Leaving school five years later he joined the Jersey branch of the London City and Midland Bank. He was a vocalist of considerable merit, and a favourite on concert platforms.

When the war began he was serving in the Medical Section of the RMIJ, in which he was keenly interested. In July 1915 he enlisted in the Ambulance Corps of the Motor Transport Section, and was soon in France under fire with the 13th Column. He was rapidly promoted Sergeant, and in 1916 was sent home to get his commission. The Tank Corps was then being formed, and he was gazetted Second Lieutenant in January 1917.

Again proceeding to France, he was in all the big actions when tanks were proving their worth. On 20th November, 1917 (“Tank Day”), he was reported to have done good work. A few days later, after some thirty-six hours of fierce fighting, his tank (“Angostura”) received a direct hit and both he and his driver were killed, as they were coming out of action in Gauche Wood, Gouzeaucourt, Cambrai, on 1st December, 1917.

His senior officer writes of him: “I never had a better officer, an example to all, always cool and determined under fire, a general favourite, the life and soul of our mess. We shall miss him terribly.”

 

_______

 

“Went the day well? We died and never knew.”

“But, well or ill, England, we died for you.”

The above text appeared in the Victoria College Book of Remembrance published in 1920.

The following is the link to the Channel Islands Great War Study Group:

http://www.greatwarci.net/honour/jersey/database/defaye-e-cambrai.htm