Edwin Cowley was born in 1914 in Ottawa, Ontario, the oldest son of Josiah and Violet Cowley. He had five brothers and five sisters, all younger than him. He went to school in Ottawa until Grade 8 grade when he was 14 years old. He then worked for five years for Canadian National Telegraphs, then for J.R.Booth & Co in Ottawa as an elevator operator for three years.
On 1 September 1939, the 3rd Field Company was ordered to mobilize as part of the Canadian Active Service Force, which later was named the Canadian Army, a term not yet in official use. Following the commanding officer held a brief meeting at the Drill Hall on Grove Avenue, arrangements to attract more recruits were started. Edwin was one of the first recruits enlisting on 5 September 1939. He stated his occupation as a truck driver and motorcyclist.
The next few months would be an extended shake-out time for the unit. There were shortages in every way – lack of basic clothing and equipment, lack of training facilities, lack of qualified instructors and lack of accommodation. Nonetheless, the company grew to meet its war establishment strength and by December, they were ready to be shipped to the United Kingdom where it was needed most.
On 22 December, the unit, along the 4th Field Company and the 2nd Field Park Company left Halifax in a seven-ship convoy under naval escort bound for Scotland left Halifax and after eight uneventful days at sea, landed in Gourock, Scotland on 30 December 1939. On arrival in the Glasgow area, the troops were allowed a short leave and then taken to the Victoria-era Malplaque Barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire temporarily while more permanent quarters were found. These early arrivals were the forerunners of over 330,000 Canadian soldiers who passed through Aldershot between 1939 and 1946.
In February 1940, the 3rd Field Company, along with the rest of the divisional engineers, moved to the even older Talavera Barracks. Living conditions did not change. The barracks were unheated and the plumbing, inadequate to begin with, was often frozen. Despite these hardships, the troops carried on and focused on individual military training including demolitions, tactics, map reading, field defences and of course, small arms including the anti-tank rifle, and physical fitness training. Edwin qualified as a Driver i/c Class III in June 1940. The qualification, Class III, was asssigned to personnel not formally qualified as tradesmen but deemed suitable for employment as such by reason of their civil occupation, general intelligence, or their hobbies.
Throughout 1940, the reality of balancing the need to fortify and defend Britain against invasion against training for war hurt the Engineers more than the other arms – infantry, armour and artillery. As a group, they lagged in developing the individual and collective warfighting skills they would need. A desperate lack of suitable infrastructure in Britain meant combat engineer training efforts were diverted toward construction tasks. Sappers with trade qualifications built accommodations while others tackled the backbreaking construction of field fortifications – tunnels, trenches, bulwarks, tank traps, and more – all tasks better completed using machines. There was also a paucity of experience among most officers and NCOs. As they received very abbreviated engineer training, normally in British Army Schools with similar shortcomings, they no sooner learned something than they had to pass it quickly on to others without time to truly master their new skills.
Edwin’s conduct was anything but exemplary, but his offences were minor. In 1940, he was charged five times resulting in punishments including confinement to barracks (CB) and detention. One of his charges was for the unauthorized use of a military vehicle for which he was for damaging private property for which his pay was stopped to partially pay for $2000 in damages to private property. 1941 was no better with six charges for Absence Without Leave (AWL) and minor neglect. In 1942, he was charged five times for AWL and breaking CB.
Despite his not being a model soldier, his superiors thought enough of him to grant permission to marry in February in 1941. Before leaving for the United Kingdom, Edwin was romantically involved in a relationship with Lilian Ivy Wallace of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lilian followed Edwin to England and on 1 March 1941, they were married. They had a daughter, Josephine, born in September the following year. Edwin, on leave at the time of his daughter’s birth, did not participate in Operation GAUNTLET in Spitzbergen with the 3rd Field Company.
For the rest of the year and into the next, the pattern of providing labour for construction work, interspersed with short episodes of engineer training continued. However, that started to change in December 1942 when the focus of the 1st Division’s training started to take on a different flavour and the RCE started to become more intimately involved. It was now obvious that the Allies were preparing to take the fight to the enemy. That month, a small party from the unit visited the Combined Operations Training Centre near Inveraray in Scotland to prepare for exercises that would start in January.
The next six months included amphibious operations, mountain warfare and individual fighting skills. The unit developed a closer affiliation with the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade (2 CIB) they would support in any upcoming engagements. No one knew where or when they were going, but they knew they would be among the first in Europe and would be landing by sea. The training was rigorous and covered combined operations, mountain warfare, bridging, mine and booby trap clearance, small arms, route repair and construction, field craft and small arms practice. There was even some rudimentary German language training.
The Company was back in Scotland in June 1943 and had just completed three weeks of mountain warfare when they took part in a large amphibious landing exercise on the west coast of Scotland. They were issued tropical clothing and started to waterproof their vehicles. By this time, the whole division was on edge with tensions rising and rumours spreading about where and when they would see action. Would it be Greece? Crete? Sicily? No sooner was the exercise completed than they were issued tropical clothing and loaded onto ships for a week-long amphibious landing exercise and carried out an assault landing from landing craft.
The upcoming operation, code-named Operation HUSKY, and although the troops were unaware of the details, they were re-embarked and confined on the same ships when the exercise ended. The total strength of Canadian units embarked for Operation HUSKY was over 26,000 officers and men with tanks, guns and enough supplies to sustain three weeks of fighting.
The main body of the 3rd Field Company landed in Sicily on 10 July 1943 at Pachino. Many transport vehicles and items of equipment had been lost by the 1st Division when a ship was torpedoed and sunk on the way to Sicily. Once ashore, there was no master plan to coordinate the activities between the Allied armies (US 7th Army and the British 8th Army), and the formations operated independently during the campaign. The landing of follow-on troops and equipment continued until over the next few days as the sappers moved inland. Edwin landed five days later as a reinforcement and moved inland to rejoin the company. The division fought a series of battles - Grammichele on 15 July, Piazza Armerina on 16-17 July, Valguarnera from 17 to 19 July and finally, Leonforte on 21-22 July where the 3rd Field Company built the first Bailey bridge of the war under fire.
The hilltop town of Agira lay ahead. It took five days to take the town. The company initially worked on the approach road clearing mines and derelict enemy transport so the tanks and wheeled transport could move forward. The battle continued for several days until the final objective, Cemetery Hill dominating the northern end of the city, was then cleared by the Canadians after hard fighting, and the hill was declared secure on 28 July.
These were an exciting few days for the sappers. On 27 July, Lieutenant DD Love led a five-man patrol from 3 Platoon, loaded with Hawkins grenades into enemy-held territory northeast behind the town. The object was to scatter the mines along the route Agira-Troina and cause confusion among the retiring Germans. The patrol duly laid the mines and returned successfully the next day. Another patrol led by Lieutenant Ed Galway, GM got into the middle of Agira a little too early on 28 July. There was a skirmish during their withdrawal during which Sapper Johnston, MM was killed along with five Germans.
In terms of casualties, it was the most costly Canadian battle to date with over 400 casualties including two members of the 3rd Field Company killed on 28 July (Sergeant William Davies and Sapper Johnston, MM). For the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade and the 3rd Field Company, the heavy lifting in Sicily was complete but not without danger. The pace during these last days of the campaign slowed considerably and became more routine. Road maintenance was the main focus, but the company even had an opportunity to brush up its skills with the site layout of Bailey bridge stores.
It was on the last day of July that Sapper Cowley ran into danger. During a road repair task, the vehicle he was operating slipped off the road and over a cliff. He suffered a fractured skull and was taken to the 9th Field Ambulance and then to Number 4 Casualty Clearing Station. On 2 August he was mnove once again to Number 7 Casualty Clearing Station and then evacuated to a general hospital in Tunisia where he died of from his wounds on 7 August 1943. He was 29 years old.
Sapper Edwin Cowley is buried at the Medjez-El-Bab War Cemetery in Tunisia. On his tombstone, his family requested the inscription “HE DIED THAT WE MIGHT LIVE IN FAITH, PEACE AND MIGHTY LOVE”.