Spr. William Osborne Edwards

256^th Railway Construction Battalion/ 58^th Battalion

Regimental Number:  1099095

William Osborne Edwards was born in Dummer Township, Ontario on July 9^th 1897 to David and Margaret Jane Hall.  By 1901 the family was recorded as farming in Douro Township.

William enlisted into the 256^th Railway Construction Battalion in Peterborough on January 20, 1917. He was 19 years, six months old, stood 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighed 100 pounds.   He had a dark complexion, gray eyes, dark brown hair.  He was a Baptist and a labourer by occupation. He was single, had no previous military experience and was living in the city of Peterborough at the time of his enlistment.

Edwards was with the Railway Battalion for one month until he was rejected on February 27^th at the Toronto Armouries as being medically unfit because of poor development and being undersize.

He re-enlisted in Hamilton with the Railway Construction Depot on March 25^th 1918, one month later, and fourteen pounds heavier.  He was classified B.2 and fit for a non-combat role overseas.  He sailed for England on June 20 1918 aboard the S.S. Wainmana and arrived overseas on July 7^th.    Edwards was taken on strength at the Canadian Railway Troops Depot at Purfleet, England upon arrival.  After a month, he was transferred to the 8^th Canadian Reserve Battalion, a forestry battalion, on August 21^st.

He remained in England with the Forestry Battalion until October 25^th when he was posted to the 58^th Canadian Infantry Battalion.  He proceeded to France and joined his unit at the front on October the 10^th.  Edwards fought within the 58^th until the end of the war a month later.

Edwards remained in France until February 10, 1919, when he returned to England.  He spent close to a month there in the camps until he left England aboard the S.S. Olympic on March 17, 1919.  He arrived in Canada eleven days later.  He was discharged from service in Kingston, Ontario on March 28, 1919.

William returned to Dummer to farm and in 1922 married Mabel Saltern of that township.  The couple had three children.  William passed away on September 10, 1979.  He is buried in St. Marks Cemetery, in Warsaw, Ontario.

Sources

Archives of Ontario. Registrations of Births and Stillbirths – 1869-1913. Series: MS929;   Reel: 139.   Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario. P.21.

Archives of Ontario Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928;  Series: MS932; Reel: 622  P.142.

Library & Archives Canada The Military Service File of William Osborne Edwards.  Ottawa, Ontario. RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 2848-19. NO.374891.

LAC. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: 2004. Census  Place:  Douro, Peterborough (east/est), Ontario; Page: 6; Family No: 56. Page: