Stocky Edwards Cause Of Death, Obituary Not Yet Available – Stocky Edwards, a highly decorated Canadian Second World War flying ace who lived on Vancouver Island, has died. He died on Saturday, according to CHEK News. He was 100.
According to cheknews.ca, He was born on June 5, 1921, in Battleford, Saskatchewan, and grew up playing hockey. He was reportedly offered a tryout with the Chicago Black Hawks. In 1940, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force with the onset of World War II.
Edwards flew 373 combat missions and scored 19 confirmed aerial victories during WWII, making him Canada’s highest-scoring ace in the Western Desert campaign, which was the main theatre of the North African campaign. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. During the conflict, he earned the moniker “Stocky.”
Edwards stayed in the RCAF after the war and got various honors, decorations, and plaudits after his retirement. In 2004, he was named to the Order of Canada, and in 2012, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame.
Edwards was humble to the core in an interview with CHEK News last year about his achievements as a jet pilot, a trait he possessed throughout his life.
In an interview with CHEK’s Dean Stoltz outside of his Comox Valley home last year, he said, “I was just born that way.” “I just wanted to go out and do something for someone.”
