Kenora Great War Project

 

You can also view an Alphabetical List

The People

soldier_photobar

These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.

Search by name, or filter the search results using the list of options below.

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 »

Seller, Frank

Sapper Frank Seller enlisted in February 1916 at age 18 and served overseas for 2-1/2 years, most of that time as a signaller. He returned to Canada in May 1919. Frank was the youngest son of William Henry and Louisa Seller of Winnipeg, Manitoba. William and Louisa (née Morgan) were both born in the county… Read More »

McLintock, Andrew

Andrew Brackenridge McClinton was born on 11 August 1878 in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland. His father William McClinton, a shoemaker, was from Stoneykirk, Wigtownshire while his mother Agnes Bruce was from Symington, Ayrshire. The couple married on 31 January 1861 in Inch, Wigtown. Their first child, daughter Elizabeth, was born in Inch but after her birth… 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 »

Hansen, Carl Andrew

Bombardier Carl Andrew Hansen was one of four brothers from Keewatin, Ontario who served in the First World War. Carl was the son of Nils (Nels) Julius Hansen and his wife Ellen Nilson. Nils and Ellen both immigrated to Canada in the 1880s, Nils from Norway and Ellen from Sweden. They were married in December… Read More »

McLerie, Allan Gordon

‘The RAF training program in Canada ceased with the armistice and the RAF, Canada was demobilized in late 1918. During the highly successful operation of the program, more that 9 000 cadets and nearly 7 500 mechanics were enlisted, 3 272 aircrew were graduated ‘thousands of Canadians were trained with a long-term impact upon both… Read More »

McMaster, Charles Wellington

Charles was one of those recruits who faked his birth date when he enlisted for the Canadian army but unlike most recruits who fibbed about their ages, he took three years off his life instead of adding them on. He was 37 at the time. The army’s age limits were 18 years to 45 years… Read More »

Cotter, Charles Rogerson

Charles Rogerson Cotter was born on 17 October 1897 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His father Alexander McCaul Cotter was born in Austria, the son of an Irish Reverend and his wife. An age appropriate Alex Cotter arrived in Canada on the Circassian on 29 April 1889, on his way to Winnipeg. By the time of the… Read More »

Kendall, Ivan Lucas

Ivan Lucas Kendall was born on 9 May 1890 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), in northwestern Ontario. His father William Glanfield Kendall was from Rettendon, Essex, England. At age twenty-three William had immigrated to Canada, first living in Stratford, Ontario where he worked for the Grand Trunk Railway before moving to Winnipeg in 1882… Read More »

Coley, Edmund Irons

Private Edmund Irons Coley enlisted in December 1915 at age 15 and served for more than three years. After he turned 18 he was sent to France, where he was wounded near the Canal du Nord in the last weeks of the war. Edmund was the oldest son of Thomas Irons Coley and Mary Ann… Read More »