Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthDecember 10, 1896
Place of BirthKenora, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinEmma Frances Alcock, mother, PO Box 167, Kenora, Ontario
Trade / CallingLabourer
ReligionWesleyan
Service Details
Regimental Number439209
Service Record link to Service Record
Battalion52nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentMay 19, 1915
Age at Enlistment18
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarNo
Death Details
Date of DeathJuly 26, 1917
Age at Death20
Buried AtBarlin Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France
PlotII. C. 27.

Alcock, Edward Joseph

Edward Joseph Alcock was born on 10 December 1896 in Rat Portage (later named Kenora), Ontario. His parents were George and Emma (née Barker) Alcock who had married 01 January 1883 in Faraday, Hastings, Ontario. At some point after the 1891 Canada census the family moved to Saskatchewan but by the 1901 Canada census they were living in Rat Portage. Household members in the 1901 census included George and Emma and children Ethel, George, Sadie, Frances, Amy, Edward, William, and Clifford. George was working as a teamster. George’s parents Joseph and Sarah Alcock as well as his siblings Charles, Wellington, Joseph, Amy, Mary, and their families had also moved to the area. By the 1911 Canada census the family was farming in nearby Jaffray. Household members in this census were George and Emma and children Emma, Amy, Edward, William, Clifford, and new additions to the family of Cecil, Gertrude, and John. Also living with the family was hired hand William Price.

Edward Joseph Alcock enlisted in Kenora on 19 May 1915. Recruiting for the 52nd Battalion had taken place throughout the spring and summer of 1915 across northwestern Ontario with recruits being billeted privately in Port Arthur and Fort William until moved to Gresley Park in Port Arthur to undergo basic training on 7 June 1915. On 4 November 1915, the Battalion entrained to St John, New Brunswick, arriving on the 8th. Aboard the SS California, the 52nd Battalion embarked for Plymouth, England on 23 November.

Once in England the battalion moved to Witley Camp for 6 weeks of training under British instructors. In the new year the battalion moved to Bramshott for 2 more weeks of training and on 20 February 1916 embarked for France. From there the battalion went by train to Belgium. Like other Privates with the 52nd Battalion, Edward’s rate of pay was $1/day, $15 of which was paid/assigned to his mother back in Canada.

Upon arriving in Belgium, Edward attended a Trench Mortar Course at Meteren, a village southwest of Ypres. He was then attached to the 9th Canadian Light Trench Mortar Battery C/9/1 that had just been formed in Meteren in March of 1916. On 27 April 1917 Edward was admitted to the No 3 Canadian General Hospital at Etaples suffering from pleurisy. From there he was transferred to the No 10 Convalescent Depot in Ecault, diagnosed with myalgia. On 9 June 1917 Edward rejoined the 52nd Battalion in the field.

Previously reported as dangerously wounded, Private Edward Joseph Alcock died of his wounds at the No 6 Casualty Station on 26 July 1917. He is interred in the Barlin Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France. Barlin is a village about 11 kilometres southwest of Bethune. The Communal Cemetery and Ex-tension lie to the north of the village. The extension was begun by French troops in October 1914 and when they moved south in March 1916 to be replaced by Commonwealth forces it was used for burials by the 6th Casualty Clearing Station.

Edward’s father George served on council and as reeve of Jaffray and Melick for a number of years. He died 27 October 1930 and his mother 12 April 1951. Both are interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery. His brother William enlisted on 12 November 1915 and went overseas with the 94th Battalion, later transferring to the 52nd Battalion. On 19 December 1917 he was awarded the Military Medal for his actions at Passchendaele. Over the course of November 11-14 1917 he delivered messages and dispatches through areas of incessant artillery and machine gun barrage. Although he returned home, working on the rigging gang unloading machinery at the paper mill, he was injured and died of a fractured skull on 5 February 1924. He is also interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery.

Private Edward Joseph Alcock is commemorated on page 190 of the First World War Book of Remembrance in Ottawa, on the Kenora Cenotaph, on the Kenora Legion War Memorial, and on the family gravemarker in Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora.

by Judy Stockham

newspaper clippings: Kenora Miner and News
photos: Lake of the Woods Museum Archives
Edward’s gravemarker photo: courtesy of Len on findagrave.com

Alcock-Edward-Joseph-2 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-3 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-4 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-5 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-6 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-7 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-8 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-9 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-10 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-11 Alcock-Edward-Joseph-12


« Back To Soldier Biographies