Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

The son of Scottish born licensed victualler William McDonald and his Durham born wife Ellen, Edward was born on 1st July 1886, and by the time of the 1891 census he and his elder sister Norma were living with their parents in the Lawrenson Hotel, Northgate, Hartlepool and attending the Ann Crookes Endowed School on the junction of Moor and Brougham streets, just around the corner from the hotel. With his mother having died before the next census in 1901 and Norma married, in June 1906 Edward, who had been working as a bricklayer, decided to go to Canada. He left Liverpool on 15th June 1906, sailing to Montreal on the SS Victorian making for Brantford, Ontario and a job as a bricklayer, returning to England in 1908 after the death of his father.

A member of the local militia group 25th Brant Dragoons, this red haired brickie enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 22nd September 1914 at the newly built camp at Valcartier where he became Private 10551 of the 4th Battalion. Only two weeks later the battalion of 44 officers and 1212 other ranks left Quebec on the SS Tyrolia as part of the first Canadian contingent, which arrived in Plymouth on 14th October, where they spent a week moored in Devonport harbour before disembarking and making their way to Bustard Camp at Lavington on Salisbury Plain.

After living and training in muddy conditions, a prelude of what was to come, on 9th February 1915 the Battalion left Avonmouth as part of the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division, landing at St. Naziaire two days later. They marched into Belgium making for billets near Steenvoorde, and only weeks later were in the trenches where after just a few days Edward was treated at field ambulance stations and casualty clearing stations for what was listed variously as rheumatism, myalgia or pneumonia, but was back on duty by the end of March.

The 4th Battalion fought at all the major battles, Ypres, Passchendaele, Mount Sorrel, Arras and Vimy Ridge and by March 1917 Edward was promoted to Lance Corporal and then Corporal. By November they were on the Ypres Salient based at Goldfish Chateau and it was here on 3rd November that the transport lines were shelled and Corporal Edward McDonald was killed and two other wounded and the whole stock of saddles and harness destroyed.

Edward McDonald is remembered in Hartlepool on H115.09, H115.30 page 31, and H115.73

He is also remembered in Canada on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Corporal McDonald