Son of Mr Lionel C. R. Thring, M.A. J.P. First Headmaster of Dunstable Grammar School, and Mrs Jessie Margaret Thring. Edward was born in Dunstable, as were his sisters Marion and Elsie Thring; he was a keen and capable sportsmen and an old pupil of Dunstable Grammar. He won the Hankey Gold Medal for being the pupil who had made best use of his opportunities in life as a Dunstabolian.
Edward joined the Officer Training Corps (O.T.C.) at Berkhampsted, and soon after recieved his commision into the North Midland Royal Field Artillery (R.F.A.).
It is a sad task, week by week, to record the deaths in action of brave young local heroes at the Front; but an added degree of sadness seems present when promising young lives, ready and even eager to be given in the service of the country, are prematurely cut off in the hey-day of youth ere entering upon the more ardent phase of service on the battle-field itself.
The 1918 Flu Pandemic, often know as the Spanish Flu, was an unusually deadly influenza pandemic that swept the world between January 1918 and December 1920. This was the first of the two known pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the second being the 2009 flu pandemic).
