B117602 Rifleman Thomas Edward “Ted” Cornelius Crawford was born on 18 January 1914 in Espanola, Ontario, the son of Thomas Aloysius Crawford and Eleanor (Nellie) Helena Dwyer. He came from a large Roman Catholic family with six sisters and three brothers (one of whom also served overseas). He completed grade five and left school at 11. Crawford enjoyed hockey, baseball, hunting and played the sousaphone in the Kapuskasing Band.

On 27 July 1936, he married Marie Edmee Crawford, of Kapuskasing, Ontario. They had a son, Robert J., and a daughter, Joan.

He worked as a sulphite tester at Spruce Falls Pulp and Paper Company in Kapuskasing when he joined the Royal Canadian Army on 5 October 1943, and after training at Camp Borden was assigned to the Canadian Armoured Corps.

He arrived in the United Kingdom on 29 November 1944, and a few days later was transferred to the Infantry.  On 9 February 1945, he arrived in Europe and was posted to The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, A Company in Holland on 2 March.

Rifleman Crawford was first reported missing but later confirmed as killed in action on 6 April 1945 in Holland, aged 31. He is buried in the Holten Canadian War Cemetery in Holland, grave reference XI. F. 14. His family had the following engraved on his marker:

ONE OF THE BEST
THIS WORLD CONTAINED
EVER REMEMBERED
BY EDMEE, JOAN AND BOBBY

Crawford was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the King George Medal, the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with Clasp, and the France and Germany Star.

He was awarded the Medal of Remembrance posthumously for the Liberation of Holland and the Canada Medal for the 50th Anniversary of the Liberation of Holland.

With some content from RCL Magazine