Calgary Herald

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

One of the sons of journeyman tailor Thomas Trainor from Wolsingham and his Escomb born wife Eliza, unlike his brother Thomas Edward did not follow in his father’s footsteps, but became a miner. Born on 30th September 1897, aged 16 he and older brother Thomas sailed to Canada in July 1913 to join their parents who had arrived in Calgary ten months earlier.

On 6th March 1916 Edward enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Calgary, naming his mother as his next of kin and becoming Private 80889 of the 137th (Calgary) Battalion which embarked for England in August 1916 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel G.W. Morfitt. Based at camp in Seaford, Sussex the battalion was absorbed into the 21st Reserve Battalion on 10th January 1917, and the following month Private Trainor was drafted to the 50th Battalion and was posted to reinforce them in France, joining them in April as they moved into the front line at Lievin, and after five months on the front line he was promoted to Corporal.

Corporal 808891 was wounded in his right arm and abdomen in the fighting on the Passchendaele Road on 26th October 1917 and died from his wounds in #3 Australian Casualty Clearing Station on 3rd November.

His name does not appear on any local war memorial.

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance and on the Calgary Soldier’s Memorial.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Corporal Trainor