Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMay 29, 1897
Place of BirthPeckham, London
CountryEngland
Marital StatusSingle
Trade / CallingCarpenter
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number905095
Battalion1068th Battery, 220th Brigade
ForceBritish Army
BranchRoyal Field Artillery
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentHastings, England
Address at Enlistment5 Corwallis Terrace, Hastings, England
Date of EnlistmentAugust 5, 1914
Age at Enlistment17
Theatre of ServiceMesopotamia
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathSeptember 12, 1945
Age at Death48
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot48E-33-4

Evans, Stanley Ernest Stroud

Stanley Ernest Stroud was born on 29 May 1897 in the Peckham area of London, England. In later life he went by the name of Stanley Ernest Stroud Evans. His mother Mary Elizabeth Stroud was born in 1864 in Margate in Kent, the daughter of William Stroud, a butcher journeyman, and Elizabeth Feakins. At the time of the 1891 census Mary Elizabeth was living with the James and Elizabeth Charlotte (née Nunn) Evetts family where she was working as a domestic. The next year she gave birth to son Albert Edward Evans in Islington in London although a marriage record was not found. In 1893 daughter Marie was born, followed by sons Reginald in 1895, Stanley, and James in 1901, the latter three in Peckham, all except Albert with the surname of Stroud and the three boys with their mother’s maiden name as Evans. The family suspects that James Evetts was the father of Mary Elizabeth’s children.

At the time of the 1901 census Mary Elizabeth and children Marie, Reginald, and Stanley were living on Brayard Road in Peckham, surname for all given as Stroud on the census. Meanwhile Albert, surname as Stroud, was living with Mary Elizabeth’s sisters who ran a boarding house in Hastings. For the 1911 census Mary Elizabeth and James were visiting with her sister Jane Elizabeth Thomas and her husband George in Sittingbourne, Mary’s occupation given as boardinghouse keeper and marital status as single. Marie, Reginald, and Stanley were living in Hastings at 5 Cornwallis Terrace, the boardinghouse that Mary Elizabeth ran. At the time Stanley was going to school but also working as a tailor’s errand boy. Living in the household were also a servant and a boarder. Meanwhile Albert was still living with his aunt Emily Feakins in Hastings, his occupation given as electrical engineer. By the time of the 1911 census Mary Elizabeth and all the children had assumed the surname of Evans.

With occupation given as carpenter, Stanley enlisted with the 5th Sussex Battery, 2nd Home Counties Brigade, Royal Field Artillery Territorial Force on 5 August of 1914 in Hastings. The 2nd Home Counties Brigade RFA TF was based at the drill hall The Goffs in Eastbourne. It comprised a headquarters, the 4th, 5th and 6th Sussex Batteries and the Brigade Ammunition Column. The 5th Battery (Stanley’s unit) was based in St. Leonards and the 6th in Bexhill-on-Sea, while the ammunition column was at Hailsham. The brigade came under orders of the Home Counties Division and went to India with the division, landing in early December 1914 but leaving the Ammunition Column at home. In 1916 the brigade was renamed as 221 Brigade RFA TF and the batteries were lettered A, B and C. During 1917 the batteries were re-armed with the modern 18-pounder field gun and were renamed as 1067, 1068 (Stanley’s unit) and 1069 Batteries. Two-gun sections of 1069 were then moved to bring 1067 and 1068 up to six guns each. 1069 Battery was then disbanded. At some point, the brigade was provided with an ammunition column. The brigade moved to Mesopotamia, landing at Basra 18-25 October 1917 and placed under command of 17th (Indian) Division. (The Long, Long Trail The British Army in the Great War of 1914-1918)

While in India Stanley was hospitalized, mainly in Multan, a number of times: 27 days in late September-early October 1915, 11 days in late March 1916, 20 days in April 1916, and 8 days in August of 1916 with assorted illnesses. While in Mesopotamia he was admitted to a hospital with valvular disease of the heart in October 1918 and was transferred to a convalescent camp in Bagdad. In late November he was invalided to Bombay, India and then on to England on 10 January 1919. With rank of Driver, Stanley was discharged from service as physically unfit on 12 May 1919, intended residence given as Cornwallis Terrace in Hastings. During the war the boardinghouse was used to billet men in service. Stanley was granted a weekly pension based on 50% disability from date of discharge until 18 November 1919 and then a 26 week pension based on 30% disability. He was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his service.

Stanley’s brother Albert attested with the East Kent Regiment of the Territorial Force in April of 1914. He served with the 10th (Royal East Kent and West Kent Yeomanry) Battalion in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force out of Egypt from September 1915 until April 1918. The battalion then transferring to the British Expeditionary Force, he served in France with the 230th Brigade in the 74th Division. Sustaining a gunshot wound to his foot in early September, Albert was returned to England later that month. He was discharged from service on 9 March 1919.

Stanley’s brother Reginald had immigrated to Canada in 1913, arriving in Halifax aboard the Virginian on 22 March. Although the passenger list gave his destination as Hughenden in Alberta where he was to farm, by the time he signed his attestation papers on 4 May 1915 he was living in Calgary. Going overseas with the 56th Battalion, Reginald later joined the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment) in mid June of 1916. He was reported as killed in action on 30 October 1917 at Passchendaele. With no known grave Reginald is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Belgium.

After the war Stanley immigrated to Canada in 1921, arriving in Quebec aboard the Victorian on 21 June. The passenger list indicated that he was on his way to Hughenden, Alberta to farm. A short time later he ended up in Kenora, Ontario where he found work as a millwright with the Ontario-Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company.

On 22 July 1934, in Winnipeg, Stanley married divorcée Alys Doreen Lawrence. The daughter of Carrie Handson, Alys Doreen Handson was born on 9 June 1902 in the registration district of Leicester, Leicestershire in England. At the time of the 1901 census her mother had been working as a domestic/housekeeper for dairyman Richard Lampard, her baby daughter Elizabeth also living in the household along with Richard and four of his children. All with the surname of Lampard, Richard, Carrie, Alys and two other children immigrated to Canada in 1906, arriving in Montreal on 10 August on the Victorian. On 16 July 1924, in the RM of Rockwood in Manitoba, Alys married William Henry Lawrence. Alys and William gave birth to two children, Robert William likely in 1929 in Manitoba and Dorothy Doreen in 1933 in Kenora. William later married Florence Ruth Crawford in 1935 in Kenora.

Stanley died on 12 September 1945 in St Joseph’s Hospital in Kenora. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Alys, “daughter” Dorothy, his mother Mary Elizabeth and brothers Albert and James back in England, and his sister Marie Parker in Toronto. Marie had immigrated to Canada in August of 1921 to marry Canadian Expeditionary Force WW1 veteran Henry Thomas Parker of Byng Inlet in Ontario. During the war Henry had stayed at the Cornwallis Terrace boardinghouse. Stanley’s brother Albert died in 1950 in Sittingbourne, his mother in 1954 in Hastings, sister Marie in 1983 in Toronto, and his brother James in 1987 in Southampton. According to her British Columbia death record, Stanley’s wife Alys later married Bernard McCadden although at some point they divorced. Predeceased by her daughter Dorothy Shulmeister in 1980 in Vancouver, Alys died on 4 February 1984 in the Vancouver General Hospital. Stanley is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora while Alys is interred in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Burnaby, BC.

By Judy Stockham

Research notes:
Stanley’s birth record: father’s name given as James Stroud, butcher journeyman, mother’s maiden name given as Evans
Albert’s birth record: father’s name given as Albert Edward Evans, marine engineer, mother’s maiden name given as Stroud
Marie’s marriage record: parents names given as James Evans and Mary Elizabeth Stroud
Stanley’s mother Mary Elizabeth Evans’ death record: widow of James Evans who was a commercial traveller (clothing)


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