Edwin Guy Silk, born on 14th July 1883, was admitted to King Edward’s School in September 1894. He was the youngest child of Edwin, a coal merchant, and Eleanor. He lived with them and his three sisters and a brother at 75, High Street, Solihull.
Edwin studied in the Modern School, which offered a curriculum that emphasised scientific rather than classical subjects. The School Lists show that he was not highly placed in his class, his strongest subject being French, in which he came 16th out of 24. After leaving School, Edwin became a coal merchant’s clerk, presumably working for his father.
Edwin was one of the first to volunteer in August 1914, enlisting as a Private soldier with the 14th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and leaving for France in November 1915. Edwin served in different campaigns in France, including the Somme Offensive of 1916. He was killed at Ytres, a farming village 20 miles southeast of Arras, on 20th September 1918, aged thirty-five. He is buried at the Canadian Cemetery No. 2 in Neuville-St. Vaast, France. He left his estate of £1,269 to his wife, Ethel Margaret Silk, who was living at 28, Douglas Road, Acocks Green.