People on board

PUNNETT, Edward George

Edward George Punnett was born on the 4th of October 1886 in London to David John Punnett and Mary Ann Way. He was their fourth and youngest surviving child, the two younger dying at an early age. David Punnett was a Licensed Victualler, as was his father, with the family business on Mile End Road. Mary Ann Punnett died in 1893 at the age of thirty-seven, a year after the youngest child was born.

In the 1901 census the widowed David Punnett gave his occupation as Publican, at the same address on Mile End Road, with his second son Harold working as a ‘Publican Barman’. The eldest son Robert was a ‘Merchants Clerk’; in later life he became a Company Secretary. By 1911 David Punnett had retired and the family had moved to Ilford in Essex. Edward gave his occupation as ‘Carrier’s Clerk’. In November 1913 he married Ellen Sophia Bane in Bermondsey and there do not appear to be any children.

Edward George Punnett enlisted at Camberwell in the 1st County of London Yeomanry (Middlesex Duke of Cambridge’s Hussars), but it is not known when. In October 1918 he was a Lance Corporal in the 2/1st regiment, a second line training and reserve unit which had moved to Ireland in May 1918. Returning to England he travelled on RMS Leinster on the 10th. He survived the sinking and was taken to the George V Military Hospital in Dublin, where he died on the 16th of pneumonia.

Unusually for military personnel who lost their lives on RMS Leinster a death certificate was issued and Edward George Punnett’s body was returned to England where he was buried on the 22nd of October in Southwark. On the 29th of October his brother Harold died in London, aged thirty-four, leaving a widow and two children.