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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Foord, Arthur James

Arthur James Foord was born on 16 February 1894 in Hastings, Sussex, England.  His parents were William and Alice Matilda Foord.  Siblings included Winnifred Daisy (b. 1892), William Albert (b. 1897), George Alfred (b. 1902), Alice Ivy (b. 1901) and Eleanor. Arthur attended school in Hastings until the age of 14 when he joined the… Read More »

McLeod, Cecil

Cecil McLeod joined the war effort as soon as he was old enough, enlisting with the 76th Canadian Field Artillery Depot Battery in Winnipeg in March 1917, just three months after turning 18. McLeod had been born in Rat Portage Dec. 8, 1898, the son of Edward Donald McLeod, a CPR engineer, and Elizabeth Eakins…. Read More »

Brynelson, Nels Austin

Sergeant Nels Austin Brynelson was the son of Nels and Augusta Brynelson of Starbuck, Manitoba. His parents were both born in Norway and immigrated to Canada in the mid-1880s. They settled in northwestern Ontario where Nels (Sr) became a section foreman for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He worked at several railroad stations just east of… Read More »

Jarvis, Arthur Henry

More than 11,000 employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company enlisted for service in the First World War. Sergeant Arthur Henry Jarvis was working for the CPR when he signed up in 1914 and he served for over four years, returning to Canada in January 1919. Arthur was the son of William Edward Alfred Jarvis… Read More »

Murphy, James Anthony

In October 1917 the Canadian Corps moved to the Ypres Salient in Belgium for the assault on Passchendaele. Artillery shells and heavy rains had turned the battlefield into a wasteland of mud, swamp and water-filled shell holes. The Canadians suffered 15,000 casualties in the operation with over 3,000 men killed and 1,000 missing and presumed… Read More »

Schostak, Julius

Julius Schostak was born on 12 August 1880 in Lauenburg, Germany. His wife, Louise Kunkel, was born in 1889, most likely in what is now Poland. Julius and Louise were married in 1909 and they had three children – Irmgard (1910), Benjamin (1912) and Gerhard (1913) – born in the city of Petrikau. Petrikau is… Read More »

Hulmes, Frank

  The Hulmes family was from Manchester, Lancashire in England where parents Thomas and Martha (Pennington) had married on 24 March 1883. Thomas was listed as a coal wharfinger (takes custody of and is responsible for goods delivered to the wharf) in the 1891 census and as a coal dealer in later censuses. Children born… Read More »

Day, Frederick Alfred

Frederick Alfred ‘Ford’ Day was born on 09 January 1896 in Bracebridge, Muskoka, Ontario. His parents were Frederick Day and Amelia May ‘Molly’ Traviss. They had married on 26 December 1894 in Newmarket, Ontario and Ford was their first child. Other children born to this couple were Ella (b. 1897), Thomas (1898 – 1981), Clarence… Read More »

Marr, William

William Marr was born on 6 April 1885 in Rhynie, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. His father John Marr was from nearby Auchindoir while his mother Isabella Smith was from Rhynie where the couple married on 22 November 1882. Over the years John worked as a general servant and a railway carter. William had an older brother… Read More »

Christenson, A

On 17 November 1917 the Kenora Miner and News published the results of a letter that Mrs Towns received from her son Sirastin from overseas. Mentioned in the article was A Christenson as a Kenora boy at the front but his identity and service could not be confirmed.