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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Howard, William Thomas

Private William Thomas Howard enlisted at age 18 and served overseas for three years. He spent a year in France and Belgium with the 28th Battalion and several months with a trench mortar battery. William was the oldest son of William Henry Thomas and Gertrude Wilson of Kenora, Ontario. William Henry was born in England… Read More »

Starr, Arthur

Arthur Starr was born on 13 December 1886 in Bingley, Yorkshire, England. He immigrated to Canada in April 1911 listing ‘engineer’ as his occupation. Arthur started service with the Canadian Pacific Railway in Portage la Prairie as a wiper. By 1912 he had moved to Kenora, Ontario and was working as a fireman with the… Read More »

Cleaveley, Albert Reginald

Albert Reginald Cleaveley was born on 22 April 1889 near O’Connell in the township of Rama, northeast of Orillia in Ontario. His father George Cleaveley was from Charlton Kings, Gloucester in England while his mother Fanny Dockerill was from Leighton Buzzard in Bedford. The couple married on 16 November 1867 in Billington, Bedford, and gave… Read More »

Lusty, Thomas

Thomas, with the surname of Dalton, was born on 20 April 1894 in the Liverpool Workhouse in Liverpool, England. His mother was Catherine Canning who was born in 1859 in Liverpool. Catherine married William Gilray, a mariner, in November of 1877 in Liverpool. In February of 1880 she then married William Lawson, Catherine listed as… Read More »

Gibson, James

James Gibson III was born on 2 March 1896 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father James Gibson II was born in Bruce Mines, Ontario, the son of Irish immigrants James Gibson I (ore dresser) and Jane Cox. James I’s family later moved to Barrie and then on to Innisfil in southern Ontario… Read More »

Green, James Richard

James Richard Green was born on 22 January 1899 in Buffalo, New York. His parents were James Gordon Green and Nora Ellen Newhouse. Siblings included Marie (b. 1896), Genevive (b. 1902), John (b. 1907), Joseph Edward (b. 1909) and Lenore (b. 1917). The Green family came to Kenora in 1904 and James Sr. worked as… Read More »

Desrosiers, Louis

Private Louis Desrosiers was the son of Joseph and Hermeline Desrosiers of Whitefish Bay on Lake of the Woods in northwestern Ontario. Joseph, a fur trader, merchant and trapper, was from Sainte-Flavie in Quebec. Hermeline/Emeline was First Nations and born in what is now northwestern Ontario. They were married on 31 January 1892, possibly in… Read More »

Bernard, Pierre Noel

Pierre Noel Bernard enlisted with the 94th Battalion for overseas service during WW1 on 17 February 1916 in Kenora, Ontario.  He stated that he was born on 25 December 1877 in St. Ann, Quebec. Birth records (Drouin Collection) show that he was actually born in 1868, so he was 48 years old when he signed… Read More »

Carlson, Charles Arthur

Charles Arthur Carlson was born on 11 September 1892 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His father John Carlson, a carpenter, immigrated to Canada from Sweden around 1880 while his mother Mary Chemalska was from Poland or Germany, her arrival listed as 1887 in the 1901 Canada census. Other children born to… Read More »

Mansfield, Horace

Sapper Horace Mansfield was born in Ireland on 23 November 1895, the son of John and Esther Mansfield of Cork, Cork County. He had at least six older sisters (Evelyn, Amelia, Violet, Jessie, Ethel and Mabel) and an older brother Cecil. The family was living in Cork for both the 1901 and 1911 censuses of… Read More »