Edgar Tennant joined the Post Office as an assistant postman in March 1915, and was promoted to postman on 22nd January 1918. Just two months later he was killed in action at the Battle of Saint Quentin, on the first day of the German Spring Offensive, Operation Michael. The Germans attacked on a wide front in the Somme region, following a five hour artillery bombardment in which 3½ million shells fell on the Allied positions.
Edgar Tennant was born in late 1898 in Smethwick, one of three surviving children of John Tennant, a bicycle polisher, and of Annie Frances Ellis. The family lived at 107 Osborn Road, before moving to number 52 in the same street.
Edgar, aged 19, was initially reported as missing, and was later deemed to have died on the 21st March, 1918. Edgar Tennant has no known grave – he is commemorated on the Pozières Memorial.