Harry Edmonds was born in Georgetown, Guyana, on 25 December 1913, the son of Dr Frank Rowe Edmonds and Kathleen Edmonds.  He joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet in January 1932.  He was promoted Midshipman on 1 January 1933 and appointed to the battleship HMS ROYAL OAK on 13 January 1933 and to the cruiser HMS DEVONSHIRE on 8 March 1934.  He was promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant on 1 May 1935 and appointed to the Royal Naval College Greenwich for his Lieutenant’s Courses on 2 May 1935.  Promotion to Lieutenant followed on 1 April 1936.

Harry Edmonds joined HMS DOLPHIN for the Submarine Course on 31 August 1936.  On 23 December 1936 he was appointed to the minesweeper HMS WIDNES, in the Mediterranean.  An appointment to HMS PARTHIAN as 3rd Hand followed on 10 April 1937.  He was appointed to HMS H28 as 3rd Hand on 13 July 1939, followed by HMS SUNFISH as First Lieutenant on 25 September 1939.  In May 1940 (London Gazette dated 9 May 1940) he was awarded the DSC ‘for daring and resource in the conduct of successful hazardous operations against the enemy’.

He completed his Commanding Officers Qualifying Course in 1940 and then served in HMS L27 in command from 11 January 1941 to 10 August 1941.  Harry Edmonds was then appointed to HMS P36 on 11 August 1941.  On 31 March 1942, whilst P36 was alongside in Malta, she was sunk by bombing by an Italian aircraft.  On 8 May 1942 Harry Edmonds was onboard HMS OLYMPUS as a passenger to return to UK.  After leaving Malta, OLYMPUS was sunk after striking a mine.

Harry Edmonds was lost in the sinking.  He was the husband of Phyllis Georgina Edmonds, and he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Panel 62, Column 1.