Sidney Parsons
Sidney Parsons (April 11, 1893 – April 22, 1955) was a Canadian politician, mayor of Edmonton, Alberta, and candidate for election to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Early life Parsons was born on April 11, 1893 in Revelstoke, near to Plymouth, Devon, England. He was educated in Plymouth, but he and his parents immigrated to New Jersey in the early 1900s. He attended technical schools there, and began work as a bricklayer with the Standard Oil Company in Bayonne, New Jersey. In 1910, he moved to Edmonton, where he enlisted in the armed forces to fight in World War I. He served with the 49th Battalion, under the command of fellow future mayor William Antrobus Griesbach. Upon his return to Canada, Parsons married Gertrude Florence Smitt on January 8, 1918; the pair had three sons. In his post-war life, Parsons was active in the labour movement and served as an executive officer of the Edmonton Trades & Labour Council (he served as its president from 1941 until 1945). Political career Parsons first sought elected office in the 1931 Edmonton election, when he ran for Edmonton City Council as an aldermanic candidate. He finished seventh of fifteen candidates, and was not