edgar stowe
by John Atkinson Grimshaw
Edgar was born on 24 April 1886 in Leeds, Yorkshire. He was the eighth of ten children born to Thomas Henry Stowe and Helen Wynn. He emigrated to Canada in 1903 along with two brothers and settled initially in Alberta before moving to Vancouver following the war. He married Annie Mallandain at St Michael’s Anglican Church in Vancouver on 4 December 1920 and they had four children. They moved to California in 1922 and remained there until their deaths.
thomas henry stowe + helen wynn
Thomas Henry Stowe was born 10 March 1849 at Barton on Humber in Lincolnshire. He married Helen Wynn in Leeds in 1875. Helen was born on 10 March 1852 in Dewsbury, Yorkshire. Their first child, Mary Emma, was born in Leeds in 1876 followed by three more children in the next five years — Frederick Wynn was born in late 1877, William Arthur in the summer of 1879, and Sidney on 2 May 1880.
In 1881, the family was living at 32 Grosvenor Terrace in Leeds and Thomas was employed as a plumber and glazier. Their second daughter, Agnes was born later that year followed by Alice Wynn on 4 March 1883, George Norman on 23 January 1885, Edgar in 1886 and John on 10 April 1888.
By 1891, the family had moved several miles outside the city to Headingley and were living at 3 Moorland Close. Thomas was working as a Window Cleaner and while the younger children were at school, the oldest ones were also working to help support the large family. Fifteen year old Mary Emma was working as a Tailoress and thirteen year old Frederick Wynn was working as an Errand Boy. Their tenth child, Frank Septimus, was born not long after the census on 5 May 1891.
By the time the next census was taken in 1901, the family had moved again and were living at 118 Cowper Grove Harehills Lane in Potter Newton which lay to the east of Headingly and north of Leeds city centre. All ten children were still living at home and all except the two youngest boys had finished school and were working. Thomas was still working as a Window Cleaner as was his son Edgar.
In 1903, three of their sons, William, George and Edgar, emigrated to Canada sailing from Liverpool to Halifax on board the Bavarian and one year later, Thomas, Helen and four more of their children — Mary Emma, Sidney, John and Frank — followed their sons to Canada and took up a homestead near Viking in central Alberta. They left Liverpool on 24 March 1904 and arrived in the port of Halifax. Their eldest son, Frederick Wynn, remained in England and married Amy Sanderson at the Methodist Chapel at Roundhay in Leeds on 20 September 1904. Also remaining in England were daughters Agnes and Alice but by 1906, Alice had also joined her family in Canada.
In 1911, Thomas and Helen were still farming near Viking along with sons Sidney and Frank and daughter Alice. Their eldest daughter, Mary Emma, had married George Bowron in 1904 and they were farming near Battleford, Saskatchewan with their two young children.
Edgar and John were both working in Edmonton — Edgar as a Bricklayers labourer and John as a Deliveryman — and living in lodgings but William and George have not been located in the Canadian census. Back in England, Agnes was living with her maternal aunt, Emma Young and her husband at 54 Leopold Street in Leeds and working as a machinist making blouses. Her paternal aunt, Mary Stowe, was listed as a visitor in the census returns. Frederick and Amy were still living in Leeds but later that year, they emigrated to America and settled in Minnesota where Fred worked as a Methodist minister for many years. They adopted a daughter, Dorothy, in Minnesota but had no natural children of their own.
When war broke out, four of their sons joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and served in Europe: John enlisted at Valcartier on 23 September 1914, Edgar at Edmonton on 3 November 1914, William in Montreal on 13 December 1915 and George at Edmonton on 15 February 1916. The family was still farming near Viking in 1916 and three of their sons in service were home when the census was taken — George, John and Edgar.
After the war, Edgar moved to Vancouver and both his parents and most of his siblings followed him. Thomas Henry Stowe and Helen Wynn died within months of each other in North Vancouver in 1932 and they were both buried at Capilano View Cemetery. Their daughter Alice died four years later and her death certificate notes that she was ‘crippled’ and suffered from arthritis. Eight months later, Edgar died in California. Sidney never married and retired to Vancouver after working as a Tailor for many years; he died in Vancouver on 16 November 1950 and was buried at Ocean View Cemetery. His sister, Agnes, stayed in Leeds and died there several months before Sidney.
George Norman had married Lillian Ross and they too settled in British Columbia and lived in New Westminster for many years. He died on 28 May 1955 and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Burnaby. Frederick Wynn died in Minnesota in 1964 and the youngest brothers, John and Frank, died in Vancouver in 1969 and 1968 respectively.