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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Field, Ralph Archibald

Ralph Archibald Field was born on 2 June 1898 in the Vauxhall area of London, England. His father Joseph William Henry Field was from St Helena Island while his mother Emily Edith Pierce was from Islington, London. Joseph was a French polisher, a labour intensive trade that involved applying many thin coats of shellac dissolved… Read More »

Wilson, Ray Holland

Along with his twin brother Jay Earle Wilson, Ray Holland Wilson was born on 15 September 1889 in Keewatin, Ontario. His father Thomas Alexander Wilson, a teacher at the time of the boys’ births,  was from Bell’s Corner, Minot, Wellington North, Ontario while his mother Sarah Isabella Holland was from Milton, Iowa where the couple… Read More »

Preston, Sidney Johnston Margach

Sidney Johnston Margach Preston was born on 29 August 1893 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His parents Robert Edwin Preston and Anna Margach were both from the Kawartha Lakes area, Robert from Manvers and Anna from Lindsay. The couple married on 15 July 1884 in Port Arthur, Ontario. In 1890 the they moved… Read More »

Hatch, Ralph Douglas

Corporal Ralph Douglas Hatch enlisted with the Royal Flying Corps in October 1917 and served for 18 months in Canada. After the war he moved to Cuba to work for the Royal Bank and he lived there for about forty years. Ralph was the youngest son of John Wesley Hatch and Sarah Kirkness of Dryden,… Read More »

Bolton, Stanley Earl

Stanley Earl Bolton was born on 24 March 1895 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His father Philip Henry Bolton was from the township of Bastard in Leeds County, Ontario while his mother Rosie McQuade was from Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland. A few weeks after her arrival in Winnipeg in 1888 the… Read More »

Lindsay, Herbert Roy

The son of George Lindsay and Caroline Johnson, Herbert Roy Lindsay was born on 3 January 1891 in Napanee, Ontario. His father George was a fisherman in the Belleville/Napanee area although they may also have had a small farm. Herbert had three older siblings, George, Lilly, and Grace. Sadly, it appears that Lilly, struck by… Read More »

Bunting, Robert Edmund

Private Robert Edmund Bunting was the youngest son of Robert James Bunting and Alice Agar Fitzgerald. James was born in New Brunswick and Alice in Ontario. They both moved to northwestern Ontario with their families around 1880. They were married in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in 1882 and they had a daughter Violetta in… Read More »

Cain, Alice Louise

Alice Louise Cain was born on 4 December 1886 in Douglas, Isle of Man. Her father Robert Edward Cain was from Douglas while her mother Anna Scadden was from Wirral in Cheshire. The couple married on 23 March 1875 in Liverpool. Over the years Robert’s occupation was given as joiner, builder, and contractor. The family… Read More »

Dingwall, William Haldane

William Haldane (Hal) Dingwall was born on 17 June 1882 in the Township of Charlottenburg in the county of Glengarry, Ontario. Located in southeastern Ontario, the nearest city in the area was/is Lancaster. Charlottenburg and Lancaster were two of the original eight ‘Royal Townships’, established along the Saint Lawrence River in Upper Canada in the… Read More »

Robertson, Stuart

Private Stuart Robertson enlisted underage in September 1914, when he was 17 years old. He survived four years of war and returned to Canada in May 1919. Stuart was the son of William Robertson and Bertha Louisa Thompson of Vancouver, British Columbia. William was born in Cupar, County of Fife, Scotland and Bertha in Lancashire,… Read More »