Assistant Baker On A Troopship.

Mercantile Marine War Medal.
Edgar C. Slater.

Edgar Charles Slater was born in Dalston, Hackney, on 28th August 1898. He was the fourth child of Arthur George Slater and his wife, Sarah Ann. The couple are recorded on the 1901 Census as living at 10 Backway in the parish of Waltham Holy Cross, Waltham Abbey, Epping, with their children Ada Maude (9 yrs), Lily Amelia (7 yrs), May Matilda (5 yrs) and Edgar Charles (2 yrs).

Edgar's father was a baker, who had most probably learned baking from his own father, another Arthur, while growing up in Hounslow and Plaistow. Edgar would become the third generation of the family to take up baking as a trade.

At some point during the First World War, Edgar joined the Merchant Navy and served on the troopship SS Saxon. This ship had been requisitioned in 1917 for use as a transport in the Mediterranean, plying between Alexandria and Marseilles, but in 1918 was employed in the Atlantic, carrying American troops to Europe. From May through to October 1918, the SS Saxon crossed the Atlantic five times, sailing from either Plymouth, Liverpool or Glasgow to New York. Edgar Slater worked as an Assistant Baker on the ship, one of four men working under the direction of 1st Baker, John Bulstrode.
For his service in the Merchant Navy, Edgar Charles Slater received the British War Medal and the Mercantile Marine War Medal. This latter medal was awarded by the Board of Trade to members of the Merchant Navy who had undertaken one or more voyages through a war or danger zone. The reverse of the medal shows a steamship in an angry sea with a sailing ship and a sinking submarine in the background, the whole enclosed by a laurel wreath. The medal was cast in bronze and approximately 133,000 were issued, making it one of the rarer First World War medals.