Personal information

Four days before his 24th birthday William Bowman Edgar survived the third consecutive sinking of the ship he served on in the space of nine months. He survived all three occasions unharmed. However the down side was that he was plagued the rest of his life by what nowadays would be diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder – he suffered massive guilt about surviving when many of his friends he had seen die in horrible circumstances and this was reflected in violence and alcoholism. In fact the only time he spoke about his wartime experiences was when he had been drinking and he would recount the sinkings in distressing detail.