J. E. Bean
Service no. 50155
Corporal, Royal Field Artillery, “C” Bty. 49th Bde.
Died of wounds on 22 August 1916, aged about 44
Remembered at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-l’Abbe, Somme, France

The 1911 census return completed by 43-year-old ‘Edward John Bean’, a dustman born in Brixton living in three rooms at 5 Carfax Square (now replaced by local authority housing), Clapham with his wife Ada, their son Edward, four, and Ada’s three children from a previous marriage. Edward and widow Ada Gilbert (née Purkiss) had married five years previously at St Paul’s, Clapham. 

In January 1906 Edward, then working as a coachman, and Ada had their son Edward baptised at Holy Trinity, Clapham, along with two of Ada’s children from her mariage to George Gilbert. They lived at 2 St Alphonsus Road, Clapham.

Edward attested in Camberwell, southeast London in 1914 or 1915. The Army records consistently show him as John Edward.