Robert Edward Large signature

On this day in 1915, Robert Edward ‘Teddy’ Large enlisted at Camp Barriefield in Kingston. He was born in Belleville on April 6th, 1898, the son of Robert Large and Eliza (née Clark). In the 1901 and 1911 censuses, the family were living in Deseronto and Teddy attended Deseronto High School.

When he signed up, Large was five feet nine inches tall, with a medium complexion, brown eyes and dark hair. His regimental number in the Canadian Engineers was 500226. His service record shows that Teddy arrived in France on January 18th, 1916. On June 14th of that year he was buried by soil after a shell explosion, injuring his right knee. He then spent several months in hospital being treated for synovitis. He was discharged back to his unit in January 1917 and served in England for the rest of the war. He arrived back in Halifax on July 1st, 1919 and was demobilized on July 3rd in Kingston.

Teddy Large died on November 27th, 1926 at Toronto General Hospital of kidney failure. He was buried in Newmarket, Ontario.