Kenora Great War Project

 

You can also view an Alphabetical List

The People

soldier_photobar

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

Search by name, or filter the search results using the list of options below.

Caron, Joseph Eugene Peter

Joseph Eugene Peter Caron was born on 18 January 1876 in the St James Ward of downtown Montreal, baptized in the Cathedrale St Jaque le Majeur. His father Onesime Caron, a tinsmith, was from Quebec City while his mother Emelie Benenfant was from Rivière du Loup. The couple had married in October of 1870 in… Read More »

Holt, Harry

Lance Corporal Harry Holt joined the British army in 1912 and served for eight years, two of them spent as a German prisoner of war. After his discharge in 1920 he immigrated to Canada. Harry was the son of Walter Holt and Eliza Riley of Manchester, Lancashire, England. Walter and Eliza were married in 1890… Read More »

Linn, Hugh George

Hugh George Linn was born on 11 October 1900 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario, date confirmed by his Ontario birth record. By 1899 his father William Linn, born in the township of Smith, Peterborough in Ontario, had been living in Rat Portage and working as a drayman. On 27 November 1899,… Read More »

Gordon, Frank

Frank Gordon was born on 4 January 1898 in Cantraywood, Croy, Inverness-shire in Scotland. He was the son of Peter Gordon, a farm labourer, and Jane Phimister, a sewing maid. Listed as a great nephew, at the time of the 1901 Frank was living with crofters William and Ann Phimister in Cantraywood. For the 1911… Read More »

Olson, August Valfrid Oskar

August Valfrid Oskar Olsson was born on 12 October 1895 in Westland, Skön, Västernorrland, Sweden (spelling of name on birth registration; as many Swedish immigrants did, August gave Sundsvall as his birth place as it was the nearest city to his village of birth). His father August Olsson, born in 1866, was from Klintsjon, Nysätra,… Read More »

Fraser, Gordon Edwin

Lance Corporal Gordon Edwin Fraser enlisted with the 29th Battalion in November 1914, three months after the war started. He was seriously wounded at the Vimy front in 1917 and invalided back to Canada later that same year. Gordon was the oldest son of Andrew Fraser and Frances Elizabeth Fennell of Vancouver, British Columbia. Frances… Read More »

Preston, Sidney Johnston Margach

Sidney Johnston Margach Preston was born on 29 August 1893 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His parents Robert Edwin Preston and Anna Margach were both from the Kawartha Lakes area, Robert from Manvers and Anna from Lindsay. The couple married on 15 July 1884 in Port Arthur, Ontario. In 1890 the they moved… Read More »

Bernuy, Gabriel Eugene

Gabriel Eugene Bernuy was born on 6 May 1898 in Jujurieux, Ain, Rhône-Alpes, France. His parents François Bernuy, a grocer, and Josephine Guiguet married on 23 October 1886. Children born to the couple were Noël François Victor (1887), Louis (1889), Jean Marius (John) (1893), Emile Joseph (1894), and Gabriel. Victor was the first to immigrate… Read More »

Galloway, Norman Lloyd

Norman Lloyd Galloway was born on 26 January 1893 in Arthur, Wellington, Ontario. His parents were Cyrus and Janet Scott (Small) Galloway who had married on 14 December 1881 in Arthur. Norman had 4 older siblings, Cyrus Leslie, Hubert Scott, William Joseph Osgoode, and Cecil Charles, and a younger sister, Janet (Jennie) Florence. For both… Read More »

Anderson, Charles McLaren

Sapper Charles McLaren Anderson joined the Canadian Engineers in February 1916 and served overseas for three years. He returned to Canada in June 1919 and died in a railway accident a year later, at age 27. Charles was the son of George and Annie Lyon Anderson of Stracathro, Forfarshire, Scotland. His parents were both originally… Read More »