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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Matchett, Joseph

Private Joseph Matchett was only 15 years old when he enlisted in August 1915. He served in France and Belgium in the last year of the war, returning home in March 1919. Joseph was born on 11 March 1900 in Cambeltown, Argyllshire, Scotland. His parents were Joseph Matchett and Ann McKendrick. When the 1901 census… 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 »

Byers, Henry Joseph (Harry)

Although he gave his date of birth as 12 April 1896 on his attestation papers, Henry Joseph (Harry) Byers was born in 1898 in Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario. A birth record was not found but elsewhere in his records the year was 1898 and was also given in census records and his obituary. His mother… Read More »

Banks, Alfred George

Alfred George Banks was born on 11 August 1884 in London, England.   His father, Alfred George Banks was a railroad engineer. His mother was Charlotte Elizabeth Fish. Siblings included: Elizabeth (Lilly) who married Ernest Wilson, Harriet Daisy and Philip who died in infancy. Alfred served in the Boer War and then in 1903 emigrated… Read More »

Dominique, Eugene

Eugene Dominique was born on 18 June 1891 in Norman, Ontario, a village a couple of kilometres west of Kenora in northwestern Ontario. Both of his parents, Theophile and Celina (née Pion) Dominique were from Quebec but had married on 10 August 1882 in Nashua, New Hampshire. Known for its cotton mills, the town had… Read More »

Gray, Norman

Private Norman Gray immigrated to Canada from England in May 1914, three months before the war started. He enlisted in February 1916 and served with the 85th Battalion in France and Belgium. Norman was born on 11 October 1890 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England. His father William James Gray was a carpenter from Chatham, Kent and… Read More »

Haldane, William

William Haldane was born on 4 October 1896 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was the second son of William Haldane Sr and Catherine (Kate) Lightfoot who had married on 27 July 1892 in Winnipeg. The couple gave birth to John in 1893 and another son, Clifford in 1898. Sadly, William Sr died in April of 1900,… Read More »

Hargrave, John Clifford

John Clifford Hargrave was born on 10 July 1898 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His father John Gordon Hargrave was from Perth, Ontario, and had come to the Red River Settlement with his family around 1873 where his father founded Hargrave and Company a few years later. First a retail and wholesale grocery and coal and wood… Read More »

Sullivan, Margaret Ellen

Nursing Sister Margaret Ellen Sullivan enlisted in February 1916, at age 28, and served for over three years in England and France. She returned to Canada in August 1919 and continued her nursing career at a hospital for veterans. Margaret was the daughter of Patrick Joseph Sullivan and Margaret Mary McIlroy. Patrick was from Ireland… Read More »