Circumstances of Casualty: Died of Wounds. Was wounded in the leg and abdomen by machine gun fire on August 9th, 1918 and was carried to No. 48 Casualty Clearing Station where he succumbed to his wounds the following day.

BX August 23, 1918

Edward Blake Connell Died of Wounds

Mr. Robert Connell, 189 St. Paul’s Avenue, received word yesterday that his youngest brother, Blake, had died on August 10 in Wimereux Hospital, France, from a gunshot in the abdomen. No message had been received that Private Edward Blake Connell was wounded or that he had been admitted to the hospital, his name is another added to Brantford’s long casualty list. It is nearly 18 years since he left Brantford, and his mother, Mrs. Mary Connell, who resides at 36 Arthur Street, is at present visiting another son, J. W. Connell, in Winnipeg. Private Blake enlisted at Fort William with the 141st Battalion, but from England he went to France with the famous “Black Devils.”  Before he left he did some recruiting in western cities of the United States. He was a traveller for the Imperial Tobacco Company with headquarters at Winnipeg when he signed on. In Brantford, Private Blake was always a special favourite and many a time he helped in a good cause by acting in amateur theatricals and local minstrel shows.