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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Walters, Henry

Private Henry Walters enlisted in Kenora, Ontario in November 1915, at age 17, and served for three years in Canada, the UK, France and Belgium. Henry was born on 9 September 1898 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. His parents, Frederick Walters and Emily Golding, were married in Birmingham in 1895 and their first six children were… Read More »

Fortin, Edgar

Private Edgar Fortin enlisted in April 1916, at age 17, and arrived in France four months later. He was killed in November 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele. Edgar was the youngest son of Charles François Fortin and Emilie Jolicouer of Kenora, Ontario. Charles was from the Gaspé region in eastern Quebec and Emilie was… Read More »

Young, Thomas Malcolm

Thomas Malcolm Young was the youngest son of  William Thomas and May Young of 9545 – 106th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta. Thomas was born October 16, 1896 in Rat Portage, now known as Kenora, Ontario. His parents William and May (née Simmons) were married in Rat Portage in 1891 and he had two older brothers, William… Read More »

LaRiviere, Alexandre

Joseph Alexandre Seraphin LaRiviere was born on 1 June 1889, birth registered in the RM of Montcalm in Manitoba. His parents were Gedeon and Marie Louise (née Messier) LaRiviere who had married in 1884 in Saint Marcel, L’Islet, in Quebec where their families farmed. Three children were born to the couple in Quebec, Joseph Antoine… Read More »

Bunn, Thomas Drake

Thomas Drake Bunn was born on 24 February in Rat Portage (Kenora) Ontario.  His parents were John Robert Bunn and Vashti Elizabeth Gunne.  Siblings included Charles (born 1886), Victor (born 1890), Margaret (born 1893) and John (born 1895). Thomas’ father, John, had just rejoined the Hudson Bay Company and was serving as a clerk in… Read More »

Reavley, John William

Second Lieutenant John William Reavley was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. His parents, John Reavley and Elizabeth Jones, were both born in Northumberland. They were married in Newcastle in 1883 and they had eight children: Mary Jane (1883), Phyllis Hewitt (1885), Catherine (1887), Christina (1889), Elizabeth (1891), John (1893), George Andrew (1896), and… Read More »

McCutchan, Donald

Donald Robert McCutchan was born in Ireland, on Jan. 14, 1885, the youngest son and fourth of five children of Susan Harriet Head and British Army surgeon Lt. Col. James Shaw McCutchan. In 1900 Susan, who was separated from her husband, emigrated  to Canada to join her second husband The Hon. JEP Vereker who’d established… Read More »

Harris, Myer

Myer Harris was born on 13 February 1879 in the Chelsea area of London, England. His forename was originally spelled as Mier but was changed along the way to Myer. His father Hyman Harris was from Spitalfields, London, while his mother Sophia Stephany was from Southwark in Surrey. The couple had married in 1875 in… Read More »

Porter, John Hardie

John Hardie Porter was born on 13 January 1896 in Udny, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. A small community, it is located about 20 kilometres north of Aberdeen. John’s father William Porter, a mason, was from Methlick while his mother Jessie Hardie was from Torphins, both within a 30 kilometre radius. The couple married on 7 July… Read More »

Williams, George Burton

According to his attestation papers George Burton Williams was born on 18 June 1886 in Fort Worth, Texas. He moved to Canada sometime after the 1911 Census and by 1914 when the war started he was living in the town of Kenora in northwestern Ontario. Trained as a marine engineer, he was a locomotive engineer… Read More »