On Sunday 09 September 2007 the Royal Canadian Legion provided a Legion Colour Party and participated in the Annual Liberation of Belgium Ceremony that honours our fallen comrades that paid the supreme sacrifice in the liberation of Europe during the Second World War. In your own private thoughts as you wander among the headstones you think about the person buried there? Information on the headstone as an example tells you that Corporal EDGAR ARUNDELL D/26699, Canadian Grenadier Guards, R.C.A.C. who died at the age 28 on 11 September 1944 . A little more information can be found such as Son of William and Myra Arundell; husband of June Vivienne Arundell, of Stockbridge, Hampshire , England .

On Tuesday 11 September we had the honour to attend a private burial in this cemetery that gave new meaning to Corporal Edgar Arundell. Although this short account of his personal life is far from complete it conveys the families love and affection still prevalent today to a soldier who gave it all. Lest We Forget!

Sandra Arundell the daughter of the fallen soldier relates;

Perhaps you would not mind if I shared some of his life with you. My father was born in North Bay , Ontario , Canada . His parents, William and Myra had emigrated along with his elder brother from Crediton, Devon England . His father also William came from an old established Crediton family (butchers, tanners and farmers) His mother Myra (which is my middle name) came from another large Crediton family called Elston and were boot and shoe manufacturers.

My mother June lived on a farm just outside Crediton and one night she went to a local fair and there she met my father who was staying with his Aunt and Uncle. They arranged to meet at a later date. The next day she told her friends she had met the man she would marry and on her way home from school in her school uniform she bumped into my father. She was just sixteen at the time! My father went back to Canada but they wrote constantly (I have a large package of letters from him that I found but haven’t been able to read yet) He sent an engagement ring and enlisted in the Canadian Army. His unit the Canadian Grenadier Guards arrives in England in September 1942. In May 1943 they were married at Shobrooke Church in Devon . They moved around a bit as his regiment did but when my mother found she was pregnant with me it was decided that she should go to Scotland with her parents.

My father was killed on 11^th September 1944 and I was born 3 months later. My mother never gave up hope that it was all a mistake. She did remarry but it ended in divorce. She died almost three years ago and it is my intention to bring her ashes to Adagem if I am allowed so that she can be with her beloved “Yankee” (how he signed his letters). Whilst my mother was alive she spoke very little of him although his photographs were always around. I grew up not wanting to ask in case I upset her now I wish with all my heart I had asked. After my divorce and my ex-husbands death in 1972 I changed my name and my three children’s names back to Arundell. Now there are three more boys (my grandsons) to carry the name and his memory on!

It was a great pleasure to be part of this most eventual day and meet this gracious lady Sandra and her two sons Scott and Kevin.

Equally it was a pleasure to meet Ed Arundell and his wife Elaine who made the journey from Toronto , Canada to represent the family. Ed is the son of our fallen hero’s brother. We did spend a pleasant afternoon together but like always unfortunately these meetings are always to short and everyone must go their own way. The events of that day will be with us forever and the next time we stand in front of Corporal Edgar Arundell grave we will remember him and the fact that his wife is with him again.

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