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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Kelly, William Albert

William Albert Kelly was born on 3 July 1898 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His father James Kelly was the son of Irish immigrants that had settled in the village of Brussels, Huron, Ontario. His mother Martha Mathieson was born in Admaston, a small community near Renfrew, Ontario. Martha was the… Read More »

White, William Gregory

Birth date: William was born in Aylmer, Ontario, September 6th, 1896 to William Robert White (born October 1, 1869, Elgin County, Ontario) and Ethel Elizabeth Gregory (born November 4, 1870, Belmont, Middlesex, Ontario). They were married in Aylmer, Ontario June 1, 1893. William is descended from and related to historic families in early Ontario and… Read More »

Symmes, John Arnold

  Lieutenant John Arnold Symmes served as an officer in the Canadian infantry for a year then he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in 1917. He trained in France and returned to Canada in April 1918. John was the only son of Ernest William Symmes and Eliza Jane Arnold of Niagara Falls, Ontario…. Read More »

Atkinson, William Henry

Although he gave his birth place as Ottawa and year of birth as 1874  on his attestation papers, William Henry Atkinson was probably born on 6 November 1878 in Arnprior, Ontario. His father John Robert Atkinson had been born in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, immigrating around 1863, while his mother Eva Margaret Windsor was from Grand River,… Read More »

Connolly, Harold James

Harold James Connolly was born on 22 September 1896 in Toronto, Ontario. His father John Frederick Connolly, a first generation Canadian of Irish descent, was from Montreal while his mother Mary Preston Hardigan was born in Ireland, immigrating to Canada as a child. John and Mary married on 28 October 1884 in Montreal, John’s occupation… Read More »

Coltman, William Whitehead

William Whitehead Coltman was born on 9 February 1891 in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. His father John Coltman, a wool packer, was from Buchlyvie while his mother Ann Hutton was from the Dunmore-Airth area, both in Stirlingshire. The couple married on 26 November 1896 in Alloa. Their first child, John was born the next year, followed… Read More »

Ross, George

Private George Ross earned a Military Medal for his actions in a raid at Neuville Vitasse in late April of 1918, suffered a bullet wound to his knee at Amiens, and lost his life in an accident in 1940. George Ross was born on 22 May 1889 in Smiths Falls, Ontario. His father James Herkhimer… Read More »

Williamson, James

James (Jim) Williamson was born on 18 April 1886 in Shaw, Lancashire in England. His father Thomas Williamson was from Derbyshire while his mother Harriett Matthews was from Lincolnshire, the couple marrying in 1885 in Shaw. At the time of Jim’s birth his father was working as a porter. Moving to nearby Bury, another community… Read More »

Barnard, Christopher George

Christopher George Barnard was born on 07 September 1884 in Camberwell, London, England. His parents were James Richard Barnard (1853-1903) and Mary Ann Burns (b. 1859). Siblings included Arthur James (1888-1970) and Edwin Thomas (1883-1981). At the time of Christopher’s marriage to Lillian Ware on 20 July 1909 he was still living in Camberwell and… Read More »

Bock, George Stanley

Private George Stanley Bock was the only child of William Bock and Sarah Jane Dowsett of Spring Bay, Manitoulin Island, Ontario. His parents were both born in Ontario, William in Waterloo County and Sarah in Leeds County. They were married in June 1895 and Stanley was born in Spring Bay on 24 October 1896. William… Read More »