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Capt. Edward Boulding
British Army 5th Btn. East Kent Regiment
from:Bonnington
Edward Boulding, born at Parsonage Farm in Bonnington near Hythe in 1882, was the eldest of four children. His father, a farmer, died very young while Edward was only six or seven years old. As the eldest of the children he helped his mother work the farm and must have learned self-reliance at an early age. In 1900 he became an apprentice blacksmith and wheelwright at Bilsington. He remained at the village forge until he was mobilised as a Territorial at the outbreak of the 1914-18 war. He served in India and Mesopotamia where he was injured at the Battle of Kut (Sheik Sa'ad, 7th January 1916) and later was one of the first British soldiers into Baghdad when it was taken by the 5th regiment the Buffs in March 1917.
After service in Mesopotamia, after which he was commissioned as a Captain, in 1920, two years after the end of the war he returned to England and decided to embark on a teaching career. My late father recalled that his father Edward was at Shorncliffe army training camp when he was born in September 1914. As a baby of a few months old when Edward went off to war he did not know his father until he was eight years old when he returned from the Mesopotamia. My father remembered being taken around the village by a man in uniform to visit aunts and uncles.
After the war Edward Boulding spent two years at Goldsmiths College, London, after which he was appointed assistant master at Pembury. In 1927 he moved to Sandhurst as headmaster living at Windmill Cottage and later buying some land and building Windyridge where he lived until his death in 1960. Edward seemed to be involved in just about every local activity that you can imagine: He was a member of Cranbrook Rural Council and of the parish council and often presided at committee meetings. He helped in negotiations for which he secured the playing field for Sandhurst village. He became a member of the West Kent Div Executive Committee of the KEC. He was governor of Cranbrook School and chairman of the governors of Cranbrook County Secondary School for Boys. Capt. Boulding was also made a foundation governor of the Mary Sheafe School, Cranbrook. His activities in the world of music were so many they could not all be listed. In addition to being church organist, he trained several choirs and was a leader among choral societies and also a keen bell ringer. Among the many village tasks in which he took a pride was keeping the clock on time by winding it regularly. In the last war he was head of the local Special Constabulary.
