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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Ireland, W J

During the war W. J. Ireland served as a Lieutenant in the 98th Regiment, a militia unit based in Kenora, Ontario. The Regiment was made up of four companies: A (Fort Frances), B (Kenora), C (Emo) and D (Rainy River). The Militia and Defence Forces Lists for Canada tell us he joined B Company of… Read More »

Preece, Alfred

Private Alfred Preece was born on 16 October 1894 in Newdale, Manitoba. His birth name was Abraham Alphonse Preece and his parents were Thomas William Preece and Mary Jane Threadkill. Thomas was born in England and immigrated to Canada as a child. Mary was born in Ontario and both of her parents were from England…. Read More »

Stewart, Peter

Peter Stewart was born on 17 October 1889 in March Cottage in Forse, Latheron, Caithness, Scotland. He was the eldest child of farmer Donald Stewart and Dorothy Mackay who had married on 18 January 1889 in Inverness. His younger siblings included Mary (1891), Isabella Marjorie (Ida) (1893), William (1896) and Dorothy Evelyn (Dora) (1898). At… Read More »

Collinge, George Holmes

George Holmes Collinge was born on 21 April 1895 in Ackrington, Lancashire in England. His father Joseph Collinge, a journeyman plumber, was from Southport in Lancashire while his mother Georgina Holmes was from Londonderry, Ireland. The couple married in 1891 in Birkdale, Southport. The family settled in the Birkdale area in Southport where most of… Read More »

McMurdie, Edward Alphonse

According to his birth registration*, Edward Alphonse McMurdie was born on 17 October 1887 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. Born in Lambeth, Surrey, England, father Charles McMurdie had immigrated to Canada around 1870 while his mother Catherine (née Sullivan) McMurdie was from Peterborough, Ontario. Although Charles was found in the Rat Portage area… Read More »

Giguere, Alexandre

Birth, Parents and Siblings: According to his Attestation papers, Alexandre Giguere was born December 1, 1888, in the province of Quebec. One of his other military records states his birth was 1884;however, the 1891 Quebec census records him as age 8, thus, born about 1883. A birth registration has been located that confirms an 1883… Read More »

Hall, James Crebbin

James Crebbin Hall was born on 8 January 1877 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England. His father James Crebbin Hall Sr was from Coleraine, Ireland while his mother Harriet Purchon was from Leeds, Yorkshire. The couple married on 28 January 1871 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire where they gave birth to their first child, daughter Anne, in 1872. By… Read More »

Desmarais, Rene

The son of Eusebe and Josephine (Belanger) Desmarais, Rene Desmarais was born in Keewatin, Ontario 7 May 1891.  According to his father’s obituary in the Kenora Miner and News of 6 August 1932, the family came to Keewatin with the first sawmill that was brought over the ice to Keewatin in the early pioneer days…. Read More »

Bergstrom, John Alfred

Johan (John) Alfred Bergström was born on 8 March 1886 in Bellvik in the parish of Dorotea in Västerbotten in northern Sweden. His parents Olof Johan (Ole) Bergström and Sigrid Mathilda Östlund were both from Dorotea, marrying on 5 July 1885. John was their first born child, with his younger siblings born in Sweden being… Read More »

Thompson, Lawrence

Sergeant Lawrence Thompson was born on 20 July 1894 in Rat Portage, Ontario. His father, John Thompson, was born in Sweden and immigrated to the U.S. with an aunt when he was in his teens. During the late 1860s John worked for the Great Northern Railway between St. Paul, Minnesota and Winnipeg, Manitoba. He ended… Read More »