These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.
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Nursing Sister Ada Janet Ross enlisted in May 1915, at age 47, and served in France and the UK for three years. She died of illness in July 1918 in Buxton, England. Ada was born on 11 August 1867 in Toronto, Ontario. Her parents were Joseph and Margaret Ross and she had at least one… Read More »
Alfred Tennyson Nairn was born on 19 August 1899 in Keewatin, Ontario, a small community just west of Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora). In his early years he went by the name of Tennyson but after the war he switched to Alfred. His father Robert Nairn was from Netherhill, Dunlop, Ayrshire in Scotland and had… Read More »
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 »
William David Heminger was born on 21 May 1897 in Owatonna, Minnesota, USA. His father Alvie Heminger was from Indiana while his mother Nellie Wentworth was from Minnesota. The couple married on 29 November 1894 in Owatonna. With the addition of daughter Rose born in February, the 1900 census found the family living in Ellington,… Read More »
Joseph Nelson was born on 20 August 1871 in the parish/inner city of Toxeth in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. His father James was from Ormskirk, a town just north of Liverpool, while his mother Julia, the daughter of Irish immigrants, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire. The family first lived in Wednesbury in Staffordshire where children Edward… Read More »
Francis Harry (Frank) Shorthose was born on 17 August 1890 in Winshill, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. His father was John Henry Shorthose, brewery labourer and maltster, and his mother was Elizabeth Archer. The couple married in Burton upon Trent in 1880. Known children born to the family were John William (1881-1957), Laura Dinah (1883-1972),… Read More »
George Henry Chambers was the son of John and Mary Chambers of Sligo, County Sligo, Ireland. John was a career soldier who enlisted in the British army around 1871, at age 20, and went on to serve with the Royal Irish Regiment for 23 years. He married Mary Kerr in County Sligo in 1888 and… Read More »
Victor Portier was born on 16 August 1897 in Lagorce, Ardeche, France. He immigrated to Canada with his parents Victor and Marie Justine (née Leydier) Portier and siblings Celina and Clement via New York in August of 1902. The family settled in Norman, a small community just west of Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario…. Read More »
William Scotland was one of three brothers living in Kenora in the pre-war years to serve in the First World War. The children of James Scotland and Agnes Headridge, they had all been born in Dundee, Scotland. The family was a large one. The 1891 Scottish census listed the family as James McDuff Scotland (age… Read More »
According to his recruitment papers Joseph Hector Lapierre was born on 16 June 1897 in Sault St-Lin, Quebec. The son of Onesime and Virginie (née Martel) Lapierre (Marsan dit Lapierre), Hector was baptized on 20 June in St-Lin, parents listed as farmers from nearby St-Julienne. Onesime and Virginie married on 17 December 1880 in St-Esprit… Read More »