Name: Edward Dempsey Chalmers Rank: Sergeant Service Number: F/41558 Service: West Nova Scotia Regiment, Royal Canadian Infantry Corps Date of Birth: April 10, 1911 Place of Birth: Belfast, Antrim, Ireland Date of Enlistment: September 21, 1939 Place of Enlistment: Bridgewater, Nova Scotia Address at Enlistment: Smiths Cove, Digby County, Nova Scotia Age at Enlistment: 28 Occupation: Laborer Marital Status: Married Religion: Roman Catholic Next of Kin: Mary Campbell, 300 Abercrombie St, Glasgow, Scotland (1931) Thelma May Chalmers (Wife), (in WWII) Height: 5 feet, 6 inches Complexion: Dark Hair Colour: Dark brown Eye Colour: Blue grey Date of Death: September 15, 1944 Age: 33 Cemetery: Gradara War Cemetery, Italy Grave: Section II, Row G, Grave 52 Commemorated on Page 270 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on June 11 Edward Dempsey Chalmers was the son of David and Mary Chalmers, and the husband of Thelma May (Warren or Warne) Chalmers (1914-1998), of Smith's Cove, Digby Co., Nova Scotia. Most accounts record that his parents were of Scottish descent and lived in Scotland, but that he was born in Ireland. He had lived in the Dennistoun neighborhood of Glasgow City in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Edward immigrated to Canada aboard Canada Pacific Line’s SS Melita, departing Scotland on April 3, 1930. Edward and Thelma married January 13, 1934, on Cogswell St in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His mother’s surname is recorded as Williamson at the time. Edward served in the Militia (Reserves) in the 1930’s, having enlisted September 8, 1941, in Halifax, NS with the A Company of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, Canadian Machine Gun Corps (a lineage unit of the Princess Louise Fusiliers), and training with them annually. He re-attested with the Annapolis Regiment on June 27, 1936, in Deep Brook, NS, completed Army training, qualified as Sergeant, and transferred from the Annapolis Regiment to the West Nova Scotia Regiment on December 15, 1936. He departed Halifax December 22, 1939, and disembarked in Gourock, Scotland on December 31st. He served with the No. 1 Provost Company. In March of 1942, he departed the UK to return to Canada, served with the New Brunswick Rangers in Halifax from April to May 1, 1942, before transferring to No. 60 Canadian Infantry Basic Training Centre (60 CIBTC), known as Camp 60, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia from May 8 to November 30, 1942. He departed Canada for a second time, from Halifax, on December 12, 1942, and arrived in England on December 17th. In 1943, he was attached to the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, and the Royal Regiment of Canada, and then sailed from England on October 26, 1943, for the Mediterranean disembarking November 6, 1943, with the West Nova Scotia Regiment. Sergeant Chalmers died of wounds on September 15, 1944, during the Italian Campaign and is interred at the Gradara War Cemetery in Italy. He is also remembered on a family grave marker at the Hillgrove United Baptist Cemetery in Hillgrove, Digby Co., NS. The inscription on his war grave reads, “O GRANT HIM ETERNAL REST.”

Source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial findagrave – Gradara War Cemetery findagrave – Hillgrove, Digby County