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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Gibben, Paul Burman

Paul Burman Gibben was born on 22 July 1898 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His father William Gibben was from Barnaby Moor while his mother Sarah Eleanor Burman was from Middlesborough, both in Yorkshire, England. The couple married during the last quarter of 1890 in the registration district of Middlesborough. At the time of the 1891 England… Read More »

Hill, Harkey Merlin

Harkey Merlin Hill was born December 19, 1887 in Brigden, Lambton County, Ontario to John James Hill and Anna Bella Doman. His father had been born in Ontario on January 28, 1854 to Ireland-born parents and his mother in Ireland in 1860. Harkey Hill’s father was a cooper (barrel maker) by trade and in the… Read More »

Barker, Frederick Charles

Frederick Charles Barker was born on 12 September 1894 in Melita, Manitoba. His father Frederick (Fred Sr) Joseph Barker was from Shoreditch, London, England and had immigrated to Canada in 1873 with his parents who settled in the Faraday/Dungannon area in Ontario. His mother Mary Lydia Allcock was born in Faraday to recent English immigrants…. Read More »

Fullerton, Elmer Garfield

Flight Second Lieutenant Elmer Garfield Fullerton enlisted in June 1916 and served with the Signal section of the Canadian Engineers before becoming a pilot in 1918. After the war he had a long and successful career with the Royal Canadian Air Force and in 1973 he was inducted into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. Elmer… Read More »

Parfitt, William Joseph

William Joseph Parfitt was born on 29 March 1886 in St. George’s, London, England. His parents were Fred Parfitt and Elizabeth Woodhouse. Siblings included: Frederick John (b. 1882), Catherine Emma (1884-1972; married Edwin Thomas Barnard), Agnes Elizabeth (1887-1935; married Albert Deverell), Minnie Jessie (1890-1980; married Alfred Balchin), and David George (1891-1916). In 1901 at age… Read More »

Lavigne, William

Sapper William Lavigne was living in the Nelson area in British Columbia when he enlisted on 6 September 1916. According to his attestation paper he was born on 27 January 1876 in Kenora, Ontario, although it’s very unlikely he was actually born there. His death registration records his birth as 19 February 1877 in Ontario… Read More »

Burgess, William Cowie

William Cowie Burgess was born on 11 January 1886 in Buckie, Banffshire, Scotland. His father George Burgess was from Rathven, and his mother Jane Ingram was from Fordyce, both in Banffshire. The couple married in 1871 in Fordyce. The 1881 Scotland census found George working as a van driver and at the time of William’s… Read More »

Nord, Charles Avery

Karl Arvid Nilsson was born on 20 September 1880 in Mörsil, Jämtland in Sweden. His parents Nils Andersson and Hulda Marie Nilsdotter were from Boda in Värmland, marrying there on 19 January 1879. Later that year they gave birth to son Nils Johan. Moving to Jämtland, Karl was born in Mörsil, followed by Axel Theodor… Read More »

Roberts, Frederick Owen

Frederick Owen Roberts was born on 10 March 1900 in Keewatin, Ontario, a small town just west of present day Kenora. His father Owen Ellis Roberts, born in 1858 in Bala, Merionethshire in Wales, immigrated to Canada in 1882, arriving in Quebec on 26 June on the Circassian. He settled in Winnipeg where he married… Read More »

Markham, Frederick

Private Frederick Markham enlisted in February 1915, at age 19, and served with the 15th Battalion in France and Belgium. He was killed at the Battle of Mount Sorrel in June 1916. Frederick was the youngest son of Philip George Markham and Jane Dowse. Philip and Jane were married in Yorkshire, England in 1875 and… Read More »