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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Favel, John Thomas

Private John Thomas Favel enlisted in December 1915, at age 16, and served in France and Belgium with the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles. He was wounded twice but he survived the war and returned home in December 1918. His father and older brother also enlisted and served overseas. John Thomas, usually known as Thomas, was… Read More »

Wilson, John Samuel (1892-1954)

Their third born child, John Samuel Wilson was born on 6 March 1892, birth registered in the Township of Pickering. His father Thomas Fawcett Wilson had been born in Green River, Pickering  while his mother Annie Elizabeth Spence was from nearby Cedar Grove. The couple married on 2 June 1886 in Stouffville, County of York, with… Read More »

Degagne, Joseph Emmanuel

Joseph Emmanuel Degagne was born on 11 February 1896 in Rat Portage (now Kenora), Ontario. His parents were Pierre George Degagne and Florida Charron. Siblings included: George (1893-1970), Emile (1894-1953), Leo (b. 1897), Maria (1899-1899), Albert (1901-1901), Ida (1902-1903), Flora (b. 1904) and Clovis (1906-1915). The 1911 census showed the family  living in the neighboring… Read More »

Leavesley, Ernest Thomas

Ernest Thomas Leavesley was born on 13 July 1883 in Basford, a suburb in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. His father Charles Leavesley was from Newton Regis in Warwickshire while his mother Hannah Mee was from Basford where the couple married in 1874. Ernest had an older sister Sarah and a younger brother Charles. Charles Sr first… Read More »

Archbold, Allan

Private Allan Archbold (aka Allan Clark Archibald) enlisted in April 1917, at age 18, and served in France and Belgium with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He returned to Canada in March 1919 and died of illness about two years later. Allan was born on 22 April 1898 in Rat Portage, Ontario. His mother, Isabella… Read More »

LaRocque, Hillary Ulric

Hillary Ulric LaRocque was born on 30 January 1894 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His parents Augustin LaRocque and Henriette Boivin had married on 14 April 1873 in Ottawa. Augustin had previously married Marie Clare Rochon in St Eustache in 1866 but sadly she died in 1872 in Ottawa, the couple… Read More »

Begg, Adolphus

Adolphus Henry Begg was born on 17 April 1891 in the Rat Portage, Ontario (later named Kenora) area. His parents were John and Juliette (Sturgeon) Begg. The son of Charles Begg, a Hudson Bay Company employee that had immigrated from Favel, Sandwick, Orkney, Scotland in 1831 and married a Metis woman, Catherine Spence, Adolphus’ father… Read More »

Pepper, Halsey James

Captain Halsey James Pepper was commissioned as an officer in March 1916 and he served for three years in Canada, Great Britain and France. A few years after the war ended he moved to Los Angeles, California where he died by suicide in 1928. Halsey was born on 22 March 1867 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England…. Read More »

Johnston, David Daniel

Corporal David Daniel Johnston was married and the father of five children when he enlisted in the spring of 1915. He served overseas for three years and returned home shortly after the Armistice. David was the youngest son of Henry Johnston and Elizabeth McConnell of Whytewold, Manitoba. Henry was a farmer and he and his… Read More »

Clouatre, Stanislas Aurele

Stanislas Aurele Clouatre was born on 27 September 1894 in Val-Racine, Quebec. His parents Emilien Clouatre and Marie Grenier had married on 5 June 1892 in nearby Notre-Dame-des-Bois. The couple farmed in the Val-Racine area for a number of years, giving birth to children Ozilda (1893-1965), Stanislas, Rose Delima ((1895-1978), Thomas (1897-1965), Aldea (1899-1916), Wilfred… Read More »