Son of the Rev A. B. Hames and Mrs. Hames, of Aurora, Ontario. Before reverting back to the rank of Private and serving overseas in the 8th Bttn., Hames embarked from Halifax aboard the SS Grampian on 26 October 1916 and served as a Lance Corporal with the 203rd Battalion. He arrived in Liverpool on the 6th of November and proceeded to Shorncliffe Camp the same day. Died of wounds at the No. 7 Casualty Clearing Station after sustaining gunshot wounds to the back, thigh and wrist during the Battle for Hill 70 in August 1918.
Pte. Hames was one of three brothers who enlisted. One of his brothers, Lieutenant Clifford Hames, was also killed in service. He died when his plane crashed just three months before the death of his brother. Although the third brother Clarence returned safely home and resumed his studies at the University of Toronto, their father Arthur was forced to retire early from the ministry in 1919 due to the deaths of his two sons during the war.
Edgar Reginald Hames is commemorated on page 250 of the First World War Book of Remembrance in Ottawa, on the Royal Bank WW1 Roll of Honour, on the Hamiota, Manitoba War Memorial, on the Deloraine, Manitoba War Memorial, and along with his brother Clifford, on the family gravemarker in the Park Lawn Cemetery, Toronto.