The Fallen Comrades Window was erected in the Veterans Chapel at Sunnybrook on November 11, 1981. It honours the War Amputations of Canada's fallen comrades from the First and Second World Wars and was created in 1950 by First World War Veteran Robert J. (Bob) Edwards who had taken up this type of work in 1919. The window was previously located in the chapel of the War Amps Memorial Centre, Toronto branch building at 62 Wellesley Street.
Bob was born in South Cove, Wrentham, Suffolk, England on March 2, 1892. When he joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force (service number 190186) on March 22, 1916, he was living in Union, Ontario; his attestation papers were certified in St. Thomas, Ontario. He sailed from Halifax on the SS Olympic on June 28, 1916, and served in France from September 1916 to May 1917 as a Lance Corporal. He was treated on May 4, 1917, at No. 4 General Hospital Camiers, France for a gunshot wound and compound fracture to his right leg, which led to amputation below the knee. Bob was transferred to Southport (four months), Basingstoke (two months) and then Kirkdale (one month) in England for treatment and invalided to Canada on the HS Araguaya from Liverpool on December 29, 1917, arriving in Halifax on January 9, 1918. He received further treatment at the Military Convalescent Hospital in Toronto. While a patient there, he was fitted with a prosthetic limb.
He was discharged from the 91st Battalion, C#2 due to “physical unfitness” on September 14, 1918. After his service, he joined The War Amps in 1925 as a member of the Western Ontario Branch (London, Ontario). He was an officer of the organization for 22 years, out of which seven was the President’s chair.
Bob passed away on January 25, 1977. He will long be remembered by his works of art, throughout Western Ontario for his many stained glass windows in the various churches in this area.
