Edwin Arthur Jarrett signature

Edwin Arthur Jarrett signed up in Toronto on this day in 1916. He was born in Deseronto on January 29th, 1898, the youngest of the five children of Stephen Jarrett and Mary (née Royce). His father died in October 1898 and Mary had moved her family to Toronto by 1901, where she was running a boarding house.

Edwin and his brother Stephen Henry Royce Jarrett (who was born in Toronto) joined up together. Edwin’s regimental number was 503167, his brother’s 503168. They joined the Divisional Signal Company of the Royal Canadian Engineers. Edwin was five feet eight inches tall, with a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. His brother had similar colouring but was slightly shorter at five feet six and a quarter inches.

Their service records show that the brothers arrived in England on the SS Baltic on May 29th, 1916 and were both transferred to the 4th Divisional Signal Company. They went to France on August 11th, 1916. Both brothers were promoted (Edwin to Corporal, Stephen to Lance Corporal) and both were awarded Military Medals. They remained in the same unit throughout the war and returned to Canada on the Mauretania together, leaving England on May 31st, 1919. They were demobilized in Toronto on June 8th.

In 1921 Edwin was back with his mother and his two youngest sisters in Toronto, living at 29 Lonsdale Road and working as an accountant. He married Nora Jarrett (they were second cousins) in Hamilton on May 18th, 1922. Stephen was in York with his wife, Elsie and three sons in 1921. Edwin died in Etobicoke in 1976, while Stephen died in 1972 in Toronto.