Kenora Great War Project

 

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The People

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These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.

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Tapp, Walter

Likely born a day or two earlier, William Wilfred (Walter) Tapp was baptized on 30 May 1894 in Rivière au Renard (Fox River), Gaspé, Quebec, the village now amalgamated with the town of Gaspé. Both from the area, his parents Jean Baptiste Tapp and Berenice Bond had married on 6 November 1876 in Rivière au… Read More »

Olson, John Peter

Per Johan Olsson was born on 11 January 1893 in Malung, Dalarna, Sweden. Once in Canada his name was anglicized to John Peter (Jack) Olson. Jack’s parents were Olla Johan Olsson and Karin Persdotter who had married on 30 December 1884 in Malung. He had three older brothers, Emil (1885), Karl (1887) and Lars (Louis)… Read More »

McAskill, Kenneth

Private Kenneth McAskill was 43 years old and married when he enlisted in Kenora in February 1916. He spent two and a half years overseas, including 13 months in France with the 12th Battalion, Canadian Railway Troops. Kenneth grew up on a small island in the Outer Hebrides, an island chain off the northwest coast… Read More »

Hinds, Frederick Ellsworth

Private Frederick Ellsworth Hinds signed up with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in December 1915, at age 21, and served overseas for more than three years. Ellsworth was the son of Frederick Hinds and Isabel Mathieson of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Frederick was born in Brussels, Ontario and Isabel in Toronto. They were married in 1891 in… Read More »

Bailey, William

According to his attestation papers William Bailey was born on 01 May 1880 in Boundary, Leicestershire, England. His father was Thomas Bailey. By 1911 William was living in Kenora, Ontario, Canada working as a labourer. The census records that he came to Canada in 1905. On 15 November 1915, William enlisted with the 94th battalion… Read More »

Young, Thomas

Thomas (Scotty) Young was born on 26 January 1872 in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland. His father John Young, a roads surfaceman, was from Dailly in Ayrshire while his mother Sarah Laverty was from Maybole where the couple married on 12 August 1870. Thomas had an older sister Ellen and a younger brother James. On 13 June… Read More »

Joe, Thomas

Private Thomas Joe enlisted in Kenora, Ontario on 30 May 1916, signing up with the 141st (Bull Moose) Battalion. The battalion had been organized in December 1915 and it was being recruited in the District of Rainy River. Thomas was from Rat Portage Reserve, on the outskirts of Kenora, and a number of other First… Read More »

Murdoch, Donald Herbert

Born in Keewatin on May 7, 1896, Donald was the son of John Murdoch and Kate Lithgow.   The Murdochs were of Scottish heritage.    His mother, Kate, died of heart disease in December 1899 when he was still 2 years old.   Donald’s father was a tinsmith in Keewatin.   In the 1901 census,… Read More »

Noreus, Arnold Eugene

Arnold Eugene Noreus, the son of Swedish immigrants, was born on 28 January 1896 in Norman, Ontario, a community in northwestern Ontario that is now part of Kenora. His father Gustav Noréus was born in 1859 in Nordmaling, Västerbotten in Sweden while his mother Emma Lovisa Lindgren (aka Svensdotter), born in 1861, had her birth… Read More »

Wait, Frank

Francis (Frank) Wait was born on 29 November 1885 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His parents Isaac Wait, a bricklayer, and Jane McGuigan were both from the Ottawa area, marrying on 9 August 1875 in Ottawa. Children born to the couple in Ottawa were Arthur John (1876), Mary Agnes Maud (1877),… Read More »