Stephen Leslie Edgar (1906 - 1991)

Born 4 Dec 1906 in Lancaster, Glengarry Co., Ontario, Canada

Ancestors

Husband of Helen Alberta (Somerville) Edgar — married 28 Sep 1929 in Stettler, Alberta, Canada

Descendants

Died 27 Sep 1991 at age 84 in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

Problems/Questions Profile manager: James Edgar [send private message]

Biography

When looking on the 1921 Canada Census, there is no record of Les anywhere in Canada. He was likely living with his sister, Margaret Palfrey, and she thought he'd get recorded at home in Lancaster, and possibly his parents thought he'd get recorded in Montreal. In any event, he's not on any record for 1921!

Les travelled by train with his brother, Archie, to the Canadian Prairies on a harvest excursion in the fall of 1926. Their plan was to accumulate enough money to pay their way by ship to Australia, which they did. Unfortunately, the brothers went separately because of an incident that happened in Nelson, B.C., where Les was charged with assaulting a young boy. After a court case, Les was exonerated and he continued on his way, via Vancouver, San Francisco, Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia.

The boys never did met up in Australia, but Les found work building houses for about six months, then returned to Canada in 1927. Les had it in his mind to visit the family of Horace Somerville, whom he had met while travelling west a year before. He really had his eye on one of the daughters, Helen. After a period of courtship, they married on 28 September 1929. Their honeymoon travels took them through Nelson and Passmore, B.C., so Les could visit with his Uncle Alex. Then onward to Kamloops, where Helen's Uncle Bob had promised work for Les, cutting wood to supply the boilers at the Royal Inland Hospital.

Les and Helen found their way north to Chu Chua, where he worked as a millwright at the Windpass Mine (gold). It was while they were there that their first son, John Leslie, was born in 1932. John had a birth defect, spina bifida, so the new family was hard pressed to keep up with the medical costs. Another son, Robert Alexander, was born in 1936. Eight years passed, during which Helen had two miscarriages, then three more children were born, Charles Stephen (Steve), James, and Marylen, the latter three in Kamloops, where Les had built a house, completing it in 1944.

Sources

• Personal recollection of James Edgar UE, 2016 April 19
• CHARLES EDGAR 1772 - 1856, Lancaster Township, Glengarry County and His Descendants 1772 - 1998 [in part] arranged by Rhoda Ross and Alex W. Fraser 1998.
• Ontario BMD
• 1911 Canada Census