Edward Morgan Mathias served as Edward Dennis and is buried under that name (see note below from Paul Bland). And he is something of an enigma. Highly educated and well-travelled, he was determined to enlist when he did not have to and when he did so he joined the army as a private soldier rather than as an officer, and under an assumed name. Edward was also one of a dozen vicars' sons from Rutland to have died in the First World War. His father, the Reverend Edward M Mathias was the vicar of St Mary's Church in Greetham, the church where he is remembered on the war memorial. Edward was educated as a boarder at the City of London School where he excelled at languages. The adventurer in him led Edward to become a supervisor on board ships laying telegraph cables on the sea bed. He was widely travelled for the time and had visited Portugal, West Africa and Brazil and could speak Portugese, Spanish, French and German. He was 33 when war broke out and wanted to join the Citizen Corps. This was an organisation that provided some kind of military training for men who for various reasons were not suitable for the army. Since Edward was only 5 feet 3 inches he was not able to enlist as a soldier until the rules on height were relaxed. George Phillips wrote in Rutland and the Great War: "He refused a Commission, preferring to join up as a private. He had served nearly a year, when, on the night of the 10 May 1916, while on active service, he volunteered with four others to do a most hazardous duty in repairing the barbed wire entanglements in the front of their trenches. After he had been out about an hour, while in a crouching position, he was mortally wounded, a bullet entering the right side of the small of the back and coming out at the left shoulder. He was immediately carried to the comparative safety of the trench, and received first aid treatment. He was taken to Calais Hospital, where after lingering in great suffering for nine days he passed away quietly. His superior officer bore the highest testimony of his gallantry and geniality, which, as he said, endeared him to the whole company and he would be greatly missed by them. The chaplain and sister spoke in the highest terms of his remarkable patience under such severe suffering, and his very exceptional gratitude for all that was done for him. He was 35 years of age, and was married with a little son and daughter." His grave in Calais Southern cemetery is C.4.14, marked as E Dennis. He is also on Abresford war memorial in Hampshire where his wife was living before the war.