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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Barraclough, John Alfred

John Alfred Barraclough was born on 13 April 1884 in Elland, Halifax, Yorkshire in England. His parents David Barraclough, an insurance agent, and Martha Thompson were both from Yorkshire, their marriage registered during the 3rd quarter of 1878 in Halifax, Yorkshire. Children born to the couple were Annie (1879), James Herbert (1882), John Alfred, Samuel… Read More »

Sexsmith, Mark

Private Mark Sexsmith and his brother Richard Sexsmith enlisted in 1916 and they both served in France and Belgium with the 52nd Battalion. They died three days apart in October 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele. Mark was the son of Joseph Sexsmith and Emily Georgina Orr of Faraday Township, Hastings County, Ontario. Joseph and… Read More »

Heldahl, Edwin Ole

Illness and disease caused many casualties in the First World War and some soldiers died even before they went overseas. Private Edwin Heldahl enlisted with Lord Strathcona’s Horse in May 1917 and he died one year later while still training in Canada. Edwin was the oldest son of Ole Olsen Heldahl and Johana/Johanne Christina Pederson… Read More »

Weir, Jessie Helen

Jessie Helen Weir was born on  13 August 1892 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. Her father William Anderson Weir was from Glasgow, Scotland and had immigrated to Canada in 1883. Her mother Josephine Van Felson was born in Quebec City where the couple married in 1889. The marriage registration gave William’s occupation as… Read More »

James, Ernest Walter

Ernest Walter James was born on 08 January 1891 in Christchurch, Hampshire, England.  He was the third son of blacksmith, Noah James and Augusta ELLEN Elliott.  His siblings included Nellie ‘Ellen’ (b. 1887), Henry Edward (b. 1888), Arthur Frederick (b. 1889), Reginald Wilfred (b. 1896), Margaret May (b. 1897) and Winifred Maud (b. 1903). Ernest… Read More »

Mappin, Walter

Although he gave his date of birth on his WW1 attestation papers as 15 July 1874 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, Walter Mappin was likely born in 1863, birth registered in the 3rd quarter in Ecclesall Bierslow, a township within Sheffield. Over the years various documents show that Walter went by the forename of Walter, William,… Read More »

Lalonde, Frank

Private Frank Lalonde was a widower with four young children when he enlisted in December 1915 at age 42. He served for three years in Canada, the UK and France. Frank was born on 24 January 1873 on Allumette Island in Pontiac County, Quebec. He was baptized two months later in the mission church at… Read More »

Gordon, Frank

Frank Gordon was born on 4 January 1898 in Cantraywood, Croy, Inverness-shire in Scotland. He was the son of Peter Gordon, a farm labourer, and Jane Phimister, a sewing maid. Listed as a great nephew, at the time of the 1901 Frank was living with crofters William and Ann Phimister in Cantraywood. For the 1911… Read More »

Brodie, Benjamin John

Born in  the city of London, England in the parish of St. Botolph, on  August 15, 1877, Benjamin John Brodie  was the son of  James and Elizabeth A. Brodie.    He had an older sister, Elizabeth J. Brodie and a younger sister, Lydia Barbara Brodie.   By 1891 mother Elizabeth had remarried to William Collins and… Read More »