Walpole, Stanley George Saunders

Service highlights

  • Service number: 453147
  • Rank: Private
  • Born: Stratford-upon-Avon, 12 August 1896
  • Came to Canada: immigrated with parents who settled in Toronto
  • Work in St. Marys: Gardener for a local family
  • Enlisted: attested 29 June 1915, drafted into the 58th Canadian Infantry Battalion
  • France and Belgium: arrived in France, then moved to Belgium, entered trenches for the first time 20 February 1916
  • Died: 13 June 1916 in Sanctuary Wood, struck by enemy shell while standing in Lovers Walk Trench
  • Burial: buried by comrades near the trench, later grave could not be found
  • Commemorated: Menin Gate Memorial and the St. Marys cenotaph

A Life and Service Remembered

Stanley George Saunders Walpole was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and came to Canada as a boy with his parents, who settled in Toronto. In the years just before the war, Stanley spent time in St. Marys and worked as a gardener for a local family. It is the kind of job that leaves little paper trail but plenty of quiet marks, tended beds, trimmed hedges, and the steady routines of ordinary life.

When the war began, he returned to Toronto and by 1915 was drawn into military service. He was attested at the end of June and drafted into the 58th Battalion. That autumn he marched with the battalion to Toronto, then went east to Halifax, and in late November sailed overseas. By early December he was in England, after sailing on SS Saxonia, training at Bramshott before being sent on to the front.

In February 1916, he reached the trenches in Belgium for the first time. A few months later, in June, the 58th were in the Ypres Salient near Mount Sorrel. They were in divisional reserve during the initial German attacks, but soon after, Canadian forces counterattacked to regain lost ground, including areas around Sanctuary Wood.

On 13 June 1916, after the battalion had launched its night assault and succeeded in recapturing much of the old line through Sanctuary Wood, the shelling did not stop. During a barrage around midday, Stanley was hit and killed by an enemy shell while standing in Lovers Walk Trench. His comrades buried him near the trench, but after the war the grave could not be found. His name is therefore carried on the Menin Gate Memorial, a reminder of how many men were lost even when the ground was won back.

He was survived by his parents, Alfred and Jane Saunders Walpole of Toronto, and by brothers, including Marquis (Mark), and another brother who served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Stanley Walpole is also commemorated on the cenotaph in St. Marys.

Major battles and operations

  • Ypres Salient, early 1916 trench service
  • Mount Sorrel period, June 1916
    • Canadian counterattack operations aimed at regaining lines from Hooge through Sanctuary Wood and nearby positions
    • Night assault on 12 June 1916, consolidation and heavy shelling on 13 June 1916
    • Killed 13 June 1916 in Lovers Walk Trench, Sanctuary Wood

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