Tombstone Tuesday: COLES, Donald

Donald Coles' full grave site.¹

In Loving Memory Of
Donald Lewis Coles
Born Hamstead, England
Feb. 5, 1897
Came to Foxdale In 1920
Served His Country
In Two World Wars
1915-1978      1941-1946
Died July 14, 1964
Beloved Husband Of
Frances Mary

Rest In Peace

Like all pioneers, Donald lead an interesting life that involved a fair amount of travel abroad as learned from from Out Harvest of Memories (1983)².

Donald Lewis "Don" Coles was born 5 February 1897 to Alexander Coles and Annie (Lea) Coles of London, England. His service in WWI was with the British Army and WWII with the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Donald immigrated to the Foxdale district in 1919-20 where he filed on homestead SE 6-52-2-3-W3 and purchased the quarter section, with house, of NW 19-51-2-3-W3.

Donald returned to England to wed Frances Mary "Fay" Harding on 2 July 1925. Together they had three children, one son and two daughters.

The newlyweds returned to Canada within the year and in spring 1928 the family of three returned to England for Don to receive medical treatment for his WWI injury. After that time, he joined an engineering firm and demonstrated tractors in exhibitions across Europe, the Middle East, and Egypt before returning to Foxdale in 1931.

In the community Don served for many years on the school board, was for a time a Justice of Peace in the area, was active in the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) political party. He had just retired from farming in the spring of 1965 when he died at age 68 years, 5 months, 2 days.

Sources:
[1]Foxdale Cemetery (Foxdale, R.M. of Shellbrook no. 493, Saskatchewan, Canada; in SW Section 26, Township 51, Range 3, West of the 3rd Meridian), Donald Coles grave markers, photographed by Alanna Carswell, September 2009.
[2]Coles, Cathy, ed. "Don and Fay Coles." Our Harvest of Memories: Foxdale, Sturgeon Valley, Silver Cliff, Three Creeks, Rayside, Rich Valley. Shellbrook: Shell River North Book Committee, 1983. pp. 52-54. Print.