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Edward McNamara was born January 31, 1892 in Rye village to Patrick and Rose McNamara. The family lived on Park Ave, although all his life he had lived nearer to Harrison than to Rye and as a result was perhaps more widely known there than here.
He attended the Church of St. Gregory the Great in Harrison and was a prominent and one of the most devoted members of the Holy Name Society of that Church. As a little lad he entered the Parochial School in Mamaroneck. After graduating from that institution he entered the Cathedral College in New York City.
After finishing his course in the college he entered the New York Dental School and was a student there at the time he enlisted in the Seventh Regiment, New York National Guard.
 EDWARD J McNAMARA, OF PARK AVENUE , DIES OF WOUNDS
Edward McNamara laid down his life on the battlefield in France. It was only a week ago that relatives and intimate friends of the Rye boy picked out his smiling countenance from amongst those of a handful of happy American doughboys grouped about the entrance to a dugout in the St. Mihiel sector in a photograph produced in one of the New York newspapers. Thus it is hard for them to realize that that very lad was, while they were gazing at his picture, resting peacefully beneath a little wooden cross in a soldier's cemetery, somewhere in France. Edward McNamara the twenty-four-year-old son of Mrs. Rose McNamara of Park Avenue, is Rye's fourth hero.
 When the United States entered the war young McNamara was at once seized with a longing to serve with the flag abroad and in company with his cousin. Edward Tracy, son of Sergeant James Tracy, of the Rye police, volunteered for service with the gallant Seventh. Both young men were excellent physical specimen, and passed the rigid examinations easily. They went to Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, S. C, with The Seventh, remaining there all the winter of 1917. Finally "Eddie" Tracy was separated from his cousin and attached to the 102ud Motor Supply Train. McNamara, however, remained with his old unit, Company M. now of the 107th United States Infantry. Last June, the New York lads of the Twenty-seventh Division under Major General John F. O'Ryan went overseas.
The folks at home heard from the young soldier quite regularly after he had landed in France, receiving but a few days ago a letter written by him on September 24th, or four days before he died of wounds received in action. It was known to his people that the men of the Twenty-seventh Division had been doing heavy fighting and hence the telegram from the War Department received last night rather confirmed their fears than causing them any great surprise.
 The young man was of a quiet disposition and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He was very closely at ached to his home and took little or no part in social activities. His is survived by his mother, who is in a critical condition as a result of the shock caused by the news of her boy’s death; two brothers Thomas of Harrison, and John J. McNamara, of Thibodaux La., and one sister. Miss Minnie McNamara, of Harrison. He was a nephew of Sergeant Tracy and of Village Trustee Daniel H. Beary, of Rye.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9. 1918
PFC Edward J. McNamara died of wounds received in action 9/29/1918 on the Hidenberg Line during Battle of St Quentin Canal. Spearheading the Attack over Bellicourt Tunnel, The 107th Infantry Regiment suffered the worst casualties sustained in a single day by any U.S. regiment during the war. Dead American soldiers from the battle were interred in the
Somme American Cemetery near Bony, where the missing are also commemorated. The U.S. 27th and 30th Divisions (and those other units which served with the British) are commemorated on the Bellicourt Monument, which stands directly above the canal tunnel.
COMMENDATIONS
★World War I Victory Medal★ Purple Heart
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Links to this Veterans History
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