Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Stone
Loyal Edmonton Regiment

Persons who are not exposed to the bullets and shells in a slit trench situation or having to advance over open ground against a determined enemy should be very careful of using the words “cowardice,” “yellow,” and “malingerer.” Sooner or later, in those circumstances, we would all break down, some sooner than others.”

(Stone quoted in Copp and McAndrew, Battle Exhaustion, 70)

Born in Winterbourne, Gloucestershire, England on 2 August 1908, James Riley Stone immigrated to Alberta in the late 1920s and worked in a forestry camp. He volunteered as a private with the Edmonton Regiment on mobilization in September 1939 and went overseas as a lance corporal. He gained a commission in March 1942 and proved to be one of the battalion’s fiercest fighters in the Italian campaign.

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