Lieutenant Edmund William Clapham 1893 - 1955

Lieutenant Edmund William Clapham.

Edmund William Clapham was born on the 13th May 1893 in Bilbao Spain and was the son of Edmund William Proctor Clapham and the former Emily Jane Guy. He was educated in the UK, in Bournemouth. After he left school he trained as a combustion engineer, but then joined his father's iron ore export business in  Bilbao.  
In the First World War he joined the Highland Light Infantry as a private before becoming a Lieutenant in the Cyclist Corps. He married May Bryce on 25th October 1918 in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. They had two children, a son and a daughter. After the war he took over from his father but was forced to move the business from Bilbao because of the rise of General Franco and the Fascists. He relocated it and his family to St Jean de Luz in the Basque part of France but was forced to take a French partner.  With the rumblings of war he decided to sell the business to his  partner and move back to the UK. Initially the family lived in West London but moved to Gosforth in 1939. In 1941 he was a Lieutenant in the 9th Battalion, Newcastle Central, Home Guard. After the war the family moved to Leeds where he died in 1955.  A good golfer, he won various cups in Bilbao.

Information and photograph kindly supplied by Simon Burbridge

If you have any information on Edmund William Clapham or anyone who served in the Northumberland Home Guard, Newcastle Battalions please contact ph@ccoynblhomeguard.co.uk