Michael was born in Bodicote near Banbury to Maurice William Edmunds and his wife Evelyn Gertrude Fowler. He was baptised at Bodicote on 30 October 1921. His father was a director of Hunt Edmunds, the brewery company.

He was educated at Winchester and matriculated in 1940.

He was gazetted as Lieutenant on 12 March 1941 in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, the regiment in which his father had served in WW1. He transferred to the 7th Battalion on its formation in April 1941. He served in Iraq, Egypt and North Africa and was in action during the campaigns at Salerno and Anzio.

He was wounded in January 1944 and rejoined the Battalion whilst it was reforming before operations on the Gothic Line.

“At first light on September 20th the enemy counter-attacked A and D Companies. Both Companies were forced back and had to combine under command of Major Vincent. The situation was now so critical that the commanding officer went forward with the battery commander to restore the situation. It was soon apparent that the Regiment was too weak to retake the ground lost. A Company was only twenty strong. B Company was therefore ordered to occupy a defensive position. It was in this action that Lieutenant M.C. Edmunds, commanding a platoon of A Company was killed.” [He was a temporary Captain.]

He was killed in action in Italy on 20 September 1944 and is buried in Coriano Ridge War Cemetery, Nr, Riccione, Italy Plot XVIII, B, 7.

He is commemorated on the Banbury War Memorial.

With thanks to the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Trust.