Robert Stanley Atchison was born in Wapella,
Saskatchewan, January 14, 1895. Son of Andrew Atchison and Catherine Wickham.
He was the youngest of seven children and had three sisters and three brothers.
Stanley stayed on the farm for a while, then
went to Winnipeg to work as a clerk.
On the 12th day of February, 1916, at the
age of 21 years, 1 month, he enlisted in the 61st
(Winnipeg) Battalion.
Robert Stanley had black hair, grey eyes and
was of a dark complexion. He was not a big man, standing five feet, six inches
with an expanded chest girth of only thirty inches, yet he stood tall with his
fellows and went off to fight "For King and Country".
After training, he embarked from Halifax
aboard the “Olympic” on April 1, 1916 and arrived in Bordon, England April 11,
1916.
On
May 12, 1916 he transferred to the 44th (Manitoba) Battalion, infantry and
proceeded for service in France on August 10, 1916.
After suffering shell shock while in the
field, he was sent off duty November 15, 1916.
In April 1917 he was off duty from the 4th
to the 26th having developed the mumps.
On May 8, 1917 while serving in Fresnoy,
France, Robert Stanley was killed in action. He was 22 years of age.
His personal effects,
including a ring, were sent to his father, Andrew Atchison, who in turn gave
the ring to Robert Stanley's brother, Wilfred, who would wear it even unto his
grave. The insignia was so worn as to be unrecognizable.
Robert Stanley Atchison, a young man from
Wapella, Saskatchewan, killed in action, May 8, 1917, not in some great battle,
but in a small piece of the Great War. He is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial,
for he has no known resting place except in the hearts and minds of his family.
