Edwin's Story.
Sapper Edwin Fellows was a member of the Railway Volunteers (Royal Engineers). He died in Crewe after a nineteen-week illness on May 14th 1901. He was 27.
What do we know about Edwin?
Edwin was born in Holt, Flintshire / Denbighshire, on 12th July 1873, and baptised on 10th August 1873. He was the oldest child of George and Mary Fellows, and brother to Sarah, Mary, Annie and Elizabeth. By the time he was 7, the family had moved to Crewe, where his father was a labourer on the railway. They lived at 4 Woodland Terrace, Monks Coppenhall, Crewe.
On 17th September 1888, when he was 15, Edwin joined the London and North Western Railway Company, as an apprentice. He remained with the company for the next 12 years as a painter.
In the spring of 1899, when he was 25, Edwin married Amelia Jane Walters (1876 – 1949). He joined the Royal Engineers (Crewe Volunteers) but did not see action in South Africa.
He and his wife were living at 2 Wellington Square, Crewe in March 1901. According to the census, they did not have any children. However, by that time Edwin was ill with the ailment that would take his life on May 14th 1901.
His funeral on May 21st was attended by 40 fellow members of “E" Company, commanded by Lieutenant Lemon. He was buried in Crewe Cemetery with full military honours. However, his name does not appear on the memorial in Queens Park, Crewe.
His widow Amelia Jane remarried in 1903, to Fred Wingrave Brown.
Compiled by S. Lewington 2025
Acknowledgements to “From Crewe to the Cape” by Mark Potts, Tony Marks and Howard Curran for much of this information.