Stanley Elden Edwards - WWI

A short biography and remembrance of Stanley Elden Edwards of Innerkip, who lost his life during the First World War.

By Liz Dommasch, County Archivist

The First World War (WWI) was a global war centered in Europe that began on July 28, 1914 and lasted until November 11, 1918. For a nation of eight million people, Canada’s war effort was remarkable. More than 650,000 men and women from Canada and Newfoundland served with over 66,000 giving their lives to cause, while over another 172,000 were wounded. Locally, a number of men across the County rose to serve their country and their crown, with a large number being killed while in action.

Stanley Elden Edwards, was the son of L.E. and Margaret Edwards, and was born on January 7, 1890 in Innerkip, Ontario. Prior to enlistment, he and his wife, Gladys Victoria Edwards, lived in Woodstock, Ontario and he worked as an electrician. He enlisted at Woodstock on January 28, 1915 and left for England in autumn of that year with the 1^st Battalion. He fought in the trenches of France for over a year, before supposedly being killed and buried by an explosion of a shell on September 23, 1916. Although his family received official notice of his death in May 1917, his wife steadfastly refused to abandon hope that he was still alive, and had even received word that he was a prisoner of war in Germany suffering from loss of memory.

He is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial and his wife published the following poem in the newspaper, in September 1917, in memory of him:

In a cold and silent graveyard,

Where the trees and branches wave.

Lies a kind and loving husband

Who died the bravest of the brave.

The blow was great, the shock severe,

We little thought his death so near,

And only those, who love can tell,

The pain of not saying a last farewell.

(Daily Sentinel-Review – 22 September 1917, front page)

In October 1916, Lt. Frederick Averill Hall (killed in action on October 18, 1916) and Pte. Edwards comprised the sole subject of a display at the Rounds Studio on Dundas Street. The display consisted of two enlarged photographs of the men, as a remembrance of the two well-known Woodstock boys, who gave their lives.