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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Cleland, Edward John

Edward John Cleland was born on 14 August 1898 in Sifton (Oak Lake), Manitoba (birth registration: Manitoba 1898, 001253). His father John Cleland was from Middleville, Ontario while his mother Matilda Catherine Craig was from Dalhousie. The couple married on 6 March 1895 in Wilbur although John had been working in nearby Clyde Forks. Shortly… Read More »

Lavery, John

Joseph Pierre Jean Baptiste (John) Lavery was born on 7 January 1893 in the RM of St Francois Xavier in Manitoba. His parents Joseph Arsene Lavery and Marie Demerise St Armand were both from Quebec, marrying on 16 July 1888 in St Aubert, L’Islet. Arsene had previously been married to Beatrice Pelletier who died in… Read More »

Matthews, Charles Gordon

Lieutenant Charles Gordon Matthews enlisted in August 1915 and served for almost two and a half years in Canada, Great Britain and France. He enlisted again during the Second World War and was commissioned as a Major in the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps. He was decorated with the Order of the British Empire in… Read More »

Redsky, Edward

Private Edward Redsky enlisted in July 1916 and served for three years in Canada, the UK, France and Belgium. He was wounded at the Battle of Hill 70 but he survived the war and returned home in August 1919. Edward was the son of Chief Redsky (Miskokesik) and Endopeek of Shoal Lake First Nation in… Read More »

Elliott, Thomas Breedon

Thomas Breedon Elliott was born on 20 May 1878 in Smeeton Westerly, Leicestershire, England. His father Jonas Breedon Elliott was from Leicester while his mother Caroline Burnaby was from the Pipewell-Rushton area in Northamptonshire where the couple had married in the first quarter of 1875. Thomas had an older sister, Florence (1876) and younger brother… Read More »

MacPherson, Peter

Peter MacPherson was born on 14 October 1897 in the district of Hutchesontown in Glasgow, Scotland. His father Peter MacPherson, a shoemaker, was born in 1877 in Stair, Ayrshire while his mother Elizabeth McLintock was born in 1862 in Inch, Wigtown. As a child Elizabeth’s family’s surname was McClinton, changed to McLintock when the family… Read More »

Meikle, Ivie

Ivie Meikle was born on 31 October 1885 in Catrine, Ayrshire, Scotland. A village on the River Ayr, Catrine was constructed around one of the first cotton mills (1787)  in Scotland that was enlarged in 1823 by adding a bleaching works. Ivie was the son of Thomas Meikle and Elizabeth Garvan who had married on… Read More »

Myles, Edward Andrew

Edward Andrew Myles was the fourth of six children born to Leith Myles and Mary Rathwell in Sudbury, Ontario on 22 December 1894. The family moved to Rat Portage (Kenora), Ontario in 1898. Edward, known as ‘Pat’ to his family and friends, received his education in Kenora. He joined the CPR in 1912 and worked… Read More »

Richardson, Claude Harry

Sapper Claude Harry Richardson was married and the father of a young son when he signed up with a railway unit in February 1917. He served in France and Belgium for a year and returned to Canada in December 1918. Claude was the only son of William Henry Richardson and Sarah Ann (Sadie) Law. William… Read More »

Creighton, George Francis

Although he gave his year of birth as 1885 on his recruitment papers, George Francis Creighton was likely born on 2 July 1883 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. A birth record was not found but census documents as well as his obituary and grave marker support that birth year. His father George Creighton,… Read More »