Located within the Rosedale Cemetery’s veterans’ section is the headstone of a nursing sister who died suddenly in Moose Jaw about two months after the Second World War ended.
Lt. Frances Ellen Cooper was born on Aug. 7, 1910, in The Friendly City and was the daughter of Belle Cooper. The nursing sister served overseas with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps before returning to Canada to continue her service here.
Cooper, 36, was already in the hospital when she died on Oct. 26, 1945, and a funeral service was held for her the next day. According to an article in the Moose Jaw Times-Herald, honorary Capt. A.C. Le Grew officiated at her service, while funeral company Center and Hanna handled the interment at Rosedale Cemetery.
“Nursing Sister Cooper served overseas with the R.C.A.M.C for three and a half years. She had been stationed here for two months,” the article added.
Cooper is one of hundreds of veterans buried in the Rosedale Cemetery. Her story is part of a collection that Moose Jaw’s Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 59 has created featuring nearly 500 soldiers, sailors, airmen and other military personnel from the area who fought and died in the First and Second world wars.
Capt. Kenneth Alexander Calder is another Moose Javian who fought in the Second World War and is buried in Rosedale Cemetery.
Calder was born in 1911 to Lorin and Ida May Calder of Moose Jaw and later married Margaret Lucretia of Vancouver, British Columbia. He enlisted in the army on Oct. 15, 1943, and was made a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery.
According to his attestation papers, he was five-foot-eleven, weighed 176 pounds, had brown hair, hazel eyes, and had no visible scars. However, he did have one impressive mustache.
Calder died on July 6, 1945, in Vancouver, although it is unknown why. His body was shipped back to Saskatchewan and he was buried in Lot 94, Block 6 in the cemetery.
Also buried in the Rosedale Cemetery is Cpl. John Peter Davies, who was born in 1897 to John and Sara and later married Laura of Moose Jaw.
Davies enlisted in the army and joined the King’s Own Rifles of Canada of the Royal Canadian Infantry Corps. Not much is known about when or where he served, but the information shows he died at age 49 on Jan. 31, 1946. He could have died from an injury while serving overseas or from an accident.
He is buried in the veterans’ section at Rosedale in Lot 8, Block 10, Grave 225.
According to the legion’s files, another veteran buried in Moose Jaw is Craftsman William James Hoggarth, who was the husband of Edith of Moose Jaw.
Hoggarth was born in 1912 and enlisted in the army with the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He was 33 when he died on Nov. 7, 1945, although it is unknown where he died or the cause.
The Moose Javian was buried in Lot 8, Block 10, Grave 275. His name — like so many others — is commemorated in the Second World War Book of Remembrance in Ottawa.
Another veteran buried in Moose Jaw is Leading Aircraftman Elvin Lawrence Jackson, born in 1918 to Lorne and Vilda and later married Delina of Moose Jaw.
Jackson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and likely worked on many of the planes that Canadians flew while overseas. Unfortunately, not much is known about his service or where he was stationed, but we know that he died at age 27 on Nov. 3, 1945.
Similar to his comrades in arms, Jackson is also buried in the Rosedale Cemetery, in Lot 8, Block 10, Grave 145.