Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMay 11, 1883
Place of BirthSouthampton
CountryEngland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinHarry Clive Browne (father), Chilliwack, British Columbia
Trade / CallingTinsmith
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number2022010
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Reserve Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Place of EnlistmentVancouver, British Columbia
Address at EnlistmentChilliwack, British Columbia
Date of EnlistmentMarch 8, 1918
Age at Enlistment34
Theatre of ServiceGreat Britain
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathOctober 30, 1944
Age at Death61
Buried AtRoyal Canadian Legion Cemetery, Chilliwack, BC

Browne, Stanley Cresswell

Private Stanley Cresswell Browne was called up in March 1918 and served for ten months in Canada and Great Britain. He was discharged for medical reasons in January 1919.

Stanley was the only child of Harry Clive Browne and Sarah Emily Cresswell. Harry was born in Highgate, London, England and Sarah in Kelvedon Hatch, Essex. In 1881 Harry and his mother were living in Truro, Cornwall and he was working as a nurseryman. Sarah, a professor of music, was boarding with the family. Harry and Sarah were married in Marylebone, London in July 1882. Stanley was born on 11 May 1883 in a village near the city of Southampton. He was baptized at St. Luke’s in Southampton at age four months. Harry immigrated to Canada around 1886 and his wife and son followed later, arriving in Quebec on 15 September 1888 on the SS Vancouver, their destination listed as Rat Portage, Ontario.

Harry found work in Rat Portage with the Canadian Pacific Railway, as a car repairer and car inspector. After high school Stanley became a tinsmith and worked for Hose and Canniff, a tinsmithing shop in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora). His parents moved to British Columbia around 1908 and settled in Kamloops, where Harry continued to work for the CPR. Stanley may have moved with them or followed later. In 1911 he was ill with typhoid fever. He was listed as a tinsmith in the 1912 Kamloops city directory and in 1914 he was working as a guard at the provincial jail in Kamloops.

Conscription started in Canada in 1917 and Stanley was called up in Vancouver on 8 March 1918. He was 34 years old, single, a tinsmith by trade and next of kin was his father in Kamloops. He was attached to the 1st Depot Battalion, BC Regiment. Two months later he was on his way overseas, embarking from Halifax on the SS Ajana on 16 May and arriving at Liverpool about ten days later. He was transferred to the 1st Canadian Reserve Battalion and spent the first three weeks in a segregation camp for new arrivals. Shortly after rejoining his unit he was sent on a four-week course at the Canadian School of Cookery in Clapham, south of London.

Due to a heart condition Stanley was unable to do any strenuous training and in November 1918 he was invalided to Canada, arriving in Halifax on the SS Aquitania at the end of the month. His parents had just moved to Vancouver and his father was retired. On 8 December Stanley was posted to the Casualty Company in District No. 11 and on 22 December he went on leave. A medical board on 20 January 1919 found he was unfit for further service and he was discharged on 29 January in Vancouver.

Stanley returned to his trade as a tinsmith and lived with his parents in Vancouver. His mother passed away in 1930 and his father in 1934. They are both buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. In the spring of 1940 Stanley moved to Chilliwack and lived with friends, James and Elizabeth Mundell. He died at their home after a long illness on 30 October 1944, at age 61. His funeral was held two days later and he’s buried in the Royal Canadian Legion Cemetery in Chilliwack.

By Becky Johnson


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