Edward John Whale, son of William and Martha Whale, was born in Pontlottyn in 1875. From a young age he worked as a coal miner. In 1905 he emigrated to Australia where he continued as a coal miner. On the outbreak of war he volunteered and served in the Australian Imperial Force and was killed in action on 17th November 1916 in France.
   His father, William Whale, son of miller John Whale, was born in the village of Altarnun on the northern fringes of Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. William, like generations of Whales’ before him was baptised, on 11th Jan 1852, in the parish church. The Church of St Nonna, being the largest parish church on Bodmin Moor, is also known as the Cathedral of the Moor. Sometime before 1871, William and his elder brother John had migrated to the Rhymney Valley. In the 1871 census they were boarders in the household of Luke Warne, in Church Street, Pontlottyn. Recorded as being Iron Miners, it is likely they were employed by the Rhymney Iron and Coal Company. In 1873, William married local girl Martha Moore, daughter of Edward & Eleanor Moore of Pontlottyn. They remained in Pontlottyn and raised a family of eleven children.
   On 28 July 1905, their eldest son Edward John, aged 30, emigrated to Australia, departing London bound for Sydney on the Ormez. Prior to emigrating to Australian he had served 4 years in the South Wales Borderers. He enlisted, at Toowoomba, Queensland, on 28th August 1915 and joined the Australian Imperial Force, 9th Battalion, as Private 3987. He was described on enlistment as 5ft 3¾ inches tall, 109 lbs with a 34¼ inch chest, dark complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair.
   On the 30th December 1915, he embarked on HMAT Itonus (A50) at Brisbane with the 9th Infantry Battalion (Queensland), 3rd Infantry Brigade, 12th Reinforcements, bound for Egypt. After disembarking in Egypt he was, as a result of illness and the general reorganization of the AIF after the Gallipoli campaign, transferred to the 47th Battalion at Serapeum Egypt. On 2nd June 1916 the battalion proceeded to join BEF in France, embarking on the steamship ’Caledonia’ at Alexandria and arriving at Marseilles on the 9th.
   The 47th Battalion entered the trenches of the Western Front for the first time on the 3rd July. It participated in its first major battle at Pozières. On 20th October 1916, Pte Whale was detached to 12th Machine Gun Company joining them in the field. Three weeks later on 11th November he rejoined the 47th Battlion. He was wounded in the field during a shell attack and died on 17 November 1916 at 38 Casualty Clearing Station of gas poisoning. He was aged 41.
He was buried at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, France. The burials in this cemetery were carried out under extreme pressure and many of the graves are either too close together to be marked individually, or they contain multiple burials. Some headstones carry as many as three sets of casualty details, and in these cases, regimental badges have had to be omitted. Instead, these badges, 117 in all, have been carved on a cloister wall on the north side of the cemetery. On the Australian War Memorial in London, Edward John Whale’s name is on panel 144.
   His father William Whales of 30 Tynewydd Street, Pontlottyn received two separate parcels of his son’s personal effects. On 19th February 1917 he received of two scarves, and on 22nd March he received his son’s identity disc, letters and a broken pipe. He also received Edward John’s Campaign Medals the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, and a Memorial Plaque and Scroll.