Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthSeptember 13, 1897
Place of BirthWest York, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinAlfred Sansom, father, 186 Mavety Street, Toronto, Ontario
Trade / CallingBank Clerk
ReligionMethodist
Service Details
Regimental Number349022
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Battery
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Field Artillery
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at Enlistment186 Mavety Street, Toronto, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentApril 17, 1916
Age at Enlistment18
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathNovember 3, 1960
Age at Death63
Buried AtElmwood Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Plot10A-G0083

Sansom, Edward Cecil

According to his attestation papers, Edward was born on 13 September 1897 in West York; a birth registration for Edward lists the county as Ontario while a family tree on ancestry.ca gives his place of birth as Zephyr, Scott Township.

Edward’s father Albert was from London, England while his mother Elizabeth Ann Foote was from Scott Township in the County of Ontario. Albert, previously married to Sarah Ann Sutton who died in 1887, had two children from this marriage, Ethel Beatrice (1885) and Ralph (1887). Other children born to Albert and Elizabeth were Milton Barwell (1893-1910), Stanley Bertram (1895), Margaret Myrtle (1902-1902), and Thelma Marguerite (1905). Over the years Alfred worked as a mason and contractor. The 1901 Canada census found the family living in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora). They also lived in Sault Sainte Marie and Orangeville,  both in Ontario. Elizabeth died in 1911 in Orangeville.

Edward had been living in Toronto with his father and working as a bank clerk when he signed his attestation papers in Kingston on 17 April 1916. Blue-eyed with fair hair, Edward was eighteen years old. He arrived in England on 25 July with C Company of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery aboard the Empress of Britain. Proceeding overseas, that November Edward was first attached to the Canadian Divisional Ammunition Column before he was posted to the 1st Battery, Canadian Field Artillery on the 10th. In August of 1917 he suffered severe gas poisoning, admitted to the No 7 General Hospital in St Omer on the 21st. Invalided to England, Edward was transferred to the White Cross Military Hospital in Warrington on 3 September and then on to the Canadian Convalescent Hospital Woodcote Park in late October for a week. After awarded a Good Conduct Badge in early April of 1918, Edward proceeded back overseas for duty. With the end of the war he returned to England in late March of 1919. Edward was hospitalized for most of April and May with influenza and laryngitis. Listed as a Gunner with the Canadian Artillery Reinforcement Depot, he was found on the passenger list of the Cassandra that arrived in Montreal in early July of 1919. Edward was discharged from service on demobilization on 6 July in Toronto.

At some point after the war Edward moved to Winnipeg where he married Helen May Goodridge on 5 June 1924. Born on 3 December 1901 in Manitoba, Helen was the daughter of William and Annie (née Otto) Goodridge. The couple gave birth to three children, Irene, Gordon, and Thelma. Edward was employed by the Carnegie Finance Company for twenty-eight years, followed by six years as manager of the Metland Finance Company. He was a member of the Dormer Masonic Lodge and St Stephen’s Anglican Church.

Edward died suddenly on 3 November 1960 in Winnipeg. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Helen, son Gordon, daughters Thelma Damskov of Washington and Irene Lawrence of Seven Sisters Falls as well as his brother Stanley of Edmonton and sisters Thelma MacDonald of Toronto and Ethel Pugh of Michigan. Edward’s wife Helen died on 25 December 1967 while visiting their daughter in Moses Lake, Washington. Edward and Helen are interred in the Elmwood Cemetery in Winnipeg.

Edward’s half brother Ralph and brother Stanley also served during the war.

By Judy Stockham

Sansom-Edward-Cecil-2 Sansom-Edward-Cecil-3

Photograph of Edward and Helen from Jannelle Wiens, ancestry.ca.

 


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