First American to Die in the Great War?—Remembering Edward Mandell Stone, French Foreign Legion
Published: 1 April 2026
By Mike Hanlon
via the Roads to the Great War website
Edward Mandell Stone
Edward Mandell Stone (1888–1915)
The First American to die in the First World War was Harvard graduate, Edward Mandell Stone (1888–1915). He completed his work for the A.B. degree in 1907, and during his senior year studied in the law school. He did not finish his studies there but in 1909 served in the Legation at Buenos Aires as a volunteer private secretary to the Hon. Charles H. Sherrill, United States Minister to the Argentine Republic. Returning to this country he entered the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in January 1910, taking courses in history and political science, and the next autumn resumed his course in the law school.
He had been living in France for some time before the outbreak of the war and become deeply interested in this country and fond of its people. When Germany attacked France in August 1914, he enlisted at once as a private in the Foreign Legion, 2nd Regiment, Battalion C. In October he was sent to the trenches at the front with a machine gun section and served at or near Craonne until wounded there by shrapnel on 15 February 1915 while on guard duty. He was taken to the Military Hospital at Romilly, where he died of his wounds on 27 February 1915. He is buried in the Romilly-sur-Seine, Community Cemetery.
Newspaper Announcement and Photo of Stone’s Grave in France
His former classmate, Rudolph Altrocchi ’08, wrote his obituary in the Harvard Crimson:
We do much talking around the Yard about the war, taking sides (usually the same side) with earnest eloquence; but here was a fellow, happy, rich, strong, with a promising life before him, who did not hesitate to volunteer under a foreign banner and sacrifice his life for the cause he thought (and most of us think) right.
Read the entire article on the Roads to the Great War website here:
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