Battery Quartermaster Sergeant Edwin James Desperques
2nd Battalion, Canadian Pioneers
19/09/1917
Born at St Peter Port, Guernsey. Son of
Edwin James and Ellen Desperques. Married Eva Barbara
Byard in 1906 and they lived at Les Camps, St Martin's,
Guernsey. He enlisted as no. 19757 in the Army Service
Corps in 1902 at Guernsey and served until September
1905 when he transferred to the reserve. In April 1913
he had applied to go to Canada.
In August 1914 he was mobilised at St
Thomas and made corporal in October 1914. The War Office
paid for his passage to Canada, where his wife was now
living, in September 1915 and he enlisted in the Canadian
Pioneers at St Thomas in October 1915.
Died, aged 33 years
______
Edwin Desperques was never buried
because he jumped overboard on 19 Sep 1917. He was aboard
the H.M.H.S. Araguya returning from Canada to Guernsey.
He committed suicide. His body was not recovered. The
stress of the war, the loss of his young son, put him
in a depressed state of mind.
His wife and mother were given the
Memorial Cross from the Royal Canadian Military. I have
his mother's silver cross hanging on my living room
wall.
His wife moved to America after his
death, because the sadness of losing their only child
and her husband, was so great.
Cathie Dotson
Canadian
attestation papers
Commonwealth
War Graves Commission Record
