Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born on 6th February 1900 Edward was the son of Stockton-on-Tees ironworks labourer Dennis Buckley and his wife Mary (nee Jones), who had married in 1895. In 1910 Dennis left England to start a new life in Canada and was joined in Hamilton, Ontario in August the following year by Mary and the six youngest children, ranging from 11-year-old Edward to 11 month old Dennis, with Cecilia, Irene, James and Pearl in between.
Three months before his sixteenth birthday, on 17th November 1915, Edward, standing just ¾inch over five feet, went to Hamilton Recruiting Office, added two years to his age and enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, becoming Private 757023 in the 120th (City of Hamilton) Battalion. May 1916 saw him in the Military Hospital in Hamilton with a sprained ankle, but he was fully recovered by the middle of August when the Battalion sailed from Halifax to Liverpool on board the SS Empress of Britain under the command of Lieut-Col. George Douglas Fearman.
Based at Witley Camp, near Godalming, Surrey, Edward was transferred to the 125th Battalion in January 1917 when it was discovered that he was under age but a Medical Board considered him to be “well developed, looking more than his age, and able to carry on” and he was categorised as A4 boys who would be fit for overseas service as soon as they reached 19 years of age. Aged only 17¾ he had to wait until 27th March 1918 to be sent overseas with the 38th Battalion who were then on Brigade Support duties. By August they were involved in the fighting at the Somme and at the start of September were moved up to Wancourt, and it was here on 1st September 1918 whilst he was sitting with comrades eating supper that an enemy shell burst about 100 yards away, a piece of which hit Edward on the head killing him instantly.
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
CWGCCVWMCanadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Buckley
