Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | April 26, 1880 |
Place of Birth | Hanover, Ontario |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Married |
Next of Kin | Daisy Pearl Campbell (wife), Kenora, Ontario |
Trade / Calling | Motor machinist |
Religion | Methodist |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 4650 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | Canadian Army Service Corps Training Depot |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Army Service Corps |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Enlisted |
Place of Enlistment | Winnipeg, Manitoba |
Address at Enlistment | Kenora, Ontario |
Date of Enlistment | February 21, 1916 |
Age at Enlistment | 35 |
Theatre of Service | Great Britain |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | February 17, 1956 |
Age at Death | 75 |
Buried At | Brookside Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba |
Plot | MLTY-4142-0 |
Private Duncan Edwin Campbell was married and the father of two young children when he enlisted in the Canadian Army Service Corps in February 1916. He served in England for six months before being invalided back to Canada due to illness.
Edwin was born on 26 April 1880 in Hanover, Grey County, Ontario with his birth registered as Duncan Edwin Campbell. His parents were Duncan Campbell and Margaret Julia Harrison. They were married in 1877 in Clifford, a village just south of Hanover, and they had four sons: John, Edwin, Howard and Henry. By 1891 the family was living in Essex County. Edwin’s father worked there as a sawyer and later as a sawmill foreman. Sometime when he was in his 20s or early 30s Edwin moved to northwestern Ontario and settled in the town of Kenora, where he was employed as an electrician. He was married in Kenora on 22 May 1913 to Daisy Pearl Victoria Mills. Daisy was born in South Africa and she’d immigrated to Canada with her family when she was 13 years old. Edwin and Daisy’s first child, Margaret, was born in Kenora in 1914 and their son Godfrey Edwin followed about two years later.
Edwin enlisted in Winnipeg on 21 February 1916, signing up with the No. 1 Training Depot of the Canadian Army Service Corps. He was still living in Kenora and working as a motor machinist for the Canadian Pacific Railway at the time. Two months after enlisting he was sent overseas with the depot’s 4th draft. He embarked from St. John, New Brunswick on the SS Scandinavian on 17 April and arrived in Liverpool on 29 April. He was taken on strength with the Canadian Army Service Corps Training Depot at Shorncliffe.
On 22 June Edwin was admitted to Moore Barracks Hospital, suffering from a contagious skin infection as well as stomach pain. He was diagnosed with ulceration of the stomach and transferred to the Military Hospital at Shorncliffe on 20 August. He was released on 6 October and posted to the Canadian Casualty Assembly Centre but a week later he was re-admitted to the Military Hospital. A medical report recommended that he be invalided to Canada to continue his treatment. He embarked on the SS Scandinavian on 28 October and arrived in Quebec on 6 November. He passed through Kenora five days later and continued on to Winnipeg, where Daisy had gone to wait for him. He was discharged from the army on 24 November, due to being medically unfit for further service.
Two of Daisy’s brothers were killed in the war, William Mills in October 1916 and Godfrey Mills in August 1918. Her father Walter also enlisted and he served in the UK for four years.
After he returned from overseas Edwin and his wife settled in Kenora again and they had three more daughters, Thelma, Pearl and Irene. Edwin had a long career as an electrician for the CPR. In the 1940s he and his family moved to Winnipeg, where he worked as a stationary engineer for the Winnipeg School Board. Edwin passed away in the Winnipeg General Hospital on 17 February 1956, at age 75. His funeral was held on 21 February and he’s buried in the military field of honour at Brookside Cemetery. Daisy died in October 1973 and she’s interred in Elmwood Cemetery.
By Becky Johnson