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.

Gourevitch, Simon

Private Simon Gourevitch enlisted in August 1914 and served with the 8th Battalion (Royal Winnipeg Rifles). He survived four years of war and returned to Canada in the spring of 1919. According to his attestation Simon was born on 16 May 1885 in Smolensk, Russia, a city in the western part of the country near… Read More »

Hermanson, Sveinn (Steven)

Sveinn (Steven) Hermanson was the son of Gudjon (Joseph)and Magdalen (Sigurdottur) Hermanson, born on 13 October 1893 in ReykjavГ­k, Iceland according to his attestation papers. In his early years in Canada he went by the name of Sveinn but during the war he adopted the name of Steven. It appears that he may have immigrated… 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 »

Creighton, Robert Bathgate

Robert Bathgate Creighton was born on 12 November 1891 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father George Creighton, the son of Irish immigrants, was from the Waltham area of Quebec and had married Margaret Gardner, the daughter of Scottish immigrants, who was from Dalhousie, Lanark, Upper Canada. By the mid 1870’s the couple… Read More »

Tew, Gordon Melvin

Gordon Melvin Tew was born on 18 October 1897 in Winona, Ontario. His father William Tew was from Bambury/Hempton, Oxfordshire in England and had immigrated to Canada aboard the Parisian in 1889. His mother Ida Sturch was from North Grimsby, Ontario. The couple married on 23 December 1893 in Hamilton. Settling in Winona, William found… Read More »

Dubord, Thomas James

Although he gave his birth  date as 2 May 1897 on his attestation papers, James Thomas Alphonse  Dubord was born on 7 February 1900 in Rat Portage (later named Kenora), Ontario. His father Jean Baptiste Alphonse Dubord had been born in Trois Rivieres, Quebec, the son of Joseph and Marie Louise Hedwige (Hamelin) Dubord. By the… Read More »

Fahey, John Ernest

John Ernest Fahey was born on 20 September 1897 in the Bass River area of Weldford, Kent in New Brunswick where his family farmed. His parents, both from New Brunswick, were John Fahey and Estella Johnston. Children born to the couple were Jane (1886), Gordon (1888-1888), Edward William (1889), Mary Winnifred (1891), Lillian Emeline (1894),… Read More »

Woods, Walter Ralph

Walter Ralph Woods was born on 13 January 1897 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His parents Russell Woods, originally from Quebec, and Elizabeth Fletcher,  born in Ontario, had married in Winnipeg on 29 December 1886. By the 1891 Canada census the Woods family was living in Rat Portage East, father Russell’s occupation given… Read More »

Cottam, James Melville

James Melville was born July 18th, 1889 in Hudely Wood, Middlesex, England to Henry Phillip Cottam (1847-1911) and Bertha Annie (b 1861). He had siblings Harry Guy (b 1882), Phillip Ashley Joy (b 1885), and Algernon Edward (1894). In 1901, the family lived in Hornsey, Middlesex, England, at 4 Glasslyn Road. His father  was a… Read More »

Weir, George Patrick

George Patrick Weir was born on 9 August 1890 in Fergus, Ontario. His father William Anderson Weir was from Glasgow, Scotland and had immigrated to Canada in 1883. His mother Josephine Van Felson was born in Quebec City where the couple married in 1889. The marriage registration gave William’s occupation as employee of the Imperial… Read More »