Private Stanley Carleton Belyea

Private, 27th Battalion, Infantry (Army).

Stanley Carleton Belyea was born 24 April 1894 in Rat Portage, Ontario. His parents were Allan and Annie (Bogle) Belyea who hailed from Greenwich, Kings County, New Brunswick. Allan's occupation was given as wooden boat maker. Sometime after the birth of their first son Daniel in October 1888, the family moved to Rat Portage (later named Kenora), Ontario where Allan found work as a carpenter for the Canadian Pacific Railway. By the 1901 Canada census for Rat Portage, the family had grown, members including parents Allan and Annie, and children Daniel, Stanley, Cecil, and Rita. Then tragedy befell the family. At only age 5, Cecil died in 1902 of pneumonia, followed by the death of Allan on 06 September 1909 in an accident in the railway yards near the round house. By the 1916 Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta census, Annie, Stanley, and Rita were living in Winnipeg where Stanley was working as a book keeper for an insurance company.

Stanley Carleton Belyea signed his recruitment papers on 16 January 1918 in Winnipeg. He embarked from Halifax aboard the SS Missanabie on 24 March 1918, arriving in Glasgow 03 April 1918. On 31 August 1918, he joined the 27th Battalion in the field in France. The 27th (City of Winnipeg) Battalion was the first independent battalion to be raised in Manitoba in the First World War, raised as part of a response to the demand for reinforcements early in 1915 as Canada struggled overseas. The Battalion arrived in France in September 1915 and entered its first major offensive at the Battle of St Eloi 5 kilometres from Ypres the following March. In Sep and October of 1918, the battalion was involved in the battles around Arras and Cambrai.

Only months after joining the 27th, Private Stanley Carleton Belyea was reported as Killed in Action on 11 October 1918. On that day the battalion had been part of the operation to take the town of Iwuy and two villages on a nearby ridge. From the War Diary for the 27th Battalion: The battalion was involved in an operation that took them to Eswars and Iwuy, from the night of 8th/9th October to the night of 11th/12th October. Casualties for the operation were appr. 7 officers and 120 other ranks. From the CEF burial register for Stanley: "Killed in Action" This soldier was shot through the head by an enemy bullet and died shortly afterwards. Location of unit at time of casualty: Near Iwuy. He is buried in the Niagara Cemetery, Iwuy, Nord, France. Iwuy is a village approximately 8 kilometres north east of Cambrai.

Stanley's mother Annie died 21 September 1925 in Coleman, Alberta. She is buried in Lake of the Woods Cemetery. Although living in Winnipeg at the time, his brother Daniel Belyea married Gladys E Graham, daughter of HR and Sarah Graham on 19 October 1919 in Kenora. The couple went on to have three children, Graham, Allan, and Henry (Harry). All three served during WW2, Corporal Graham Belyea lost at sea during transport to England in May 1941 and Warrant Officer Allan Belyea lost during an air raid over Germany 30 March 1944. Daniel Belyea died 16 May 1944 in Winnipeg. After working at the Imperial Bank in Kenora, he had transferred to a few places, latterly Winnipeg, serving as staff supervisor for 12 years preceding his death. Stanley's sister Rita had moved to the Crowspass area of Alberta in 1922 and while there met a recent Lithuanian immigrant, Matthew Raskevich. They married and went on to have two children, Bobby and Mona. The family farmed in the Coalhurst area until moving to Lethbridge after retirement. Bobby died in July of 1944 in a drowning accident on the farm. Mona married DF Murray of McNally and had five children. Predeceased by her husband in 1963, Stanley's sister Rita died 15 June 1975 in Lethbridge.

Private Stanley Carleton Belyea is commemorated on page 367 of the First World War Book of Remembrance in Ottawa, on the Kenora Cenotaph, on the Kenora Legion War Memorial, on the Kenora/Keewatin High Schools plaque, on the family gravemarker in Lake of the Woods Cemetery and on the Next of Kin Monument, Winnipeg.

By Kenora Great War Project