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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Taylor, Robert James

Born in Keewatin, Ontario, Robert James Taylor was the son of Robert Taylor and Ada Eastwood. Robert Sr. and his wife Ada had six children between 1893 and 1900 but sadly only two of them survived infancy, Robert James (1894) and his sister Ada Rose known as Rosie (1897). Their mother Ada died on 29… Read More »

Underhill, Alfred Thomas

Shortly after Britain declared war on 4 August 1914 the Canadian government proposed   raising an Expeditionary Force to send overseas. By late September a contingent of 32,000 volunteers had been assembled at the new military camp in Valcartier, Quebec. Two thirds of the men in this 1st Canadian Contingent were born in the British… Read More »

Austen, Charles Albert

Charles Albert Austen was born 11 February 1872 in Brixton, Surrey, England.  His parents were Austin Austen and Mary Ann Headington/Watkins.  Siblings included brother – James Stephen (b. 1870), sister – Lydia Mary (b. 1877) and half-sister Emily Beatrice Watkins. As a boy, Charles sang in St. Michael’s Anglican Church. First a telegraph boy, he… Read More »

Watkinson, William Reuben

Although he gave his date of birth as 23 July 1893 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England on his attestation papers, Reuben William Watkinson was born in 1889. His mother Lydia Ashman was born in London and married his father George Watkinson, widower, in Birmingham in 1883. George, born in Birmingham, had previously married Mary Ann Fisher… Read More »

Brown, McKay

Private McKay Brown was the son of Matthew Brown and Julia Etta McElroy of Kenora, Ontario. Matthew was from Scotland and Julia was born in Ontario to Irish parents. They were married in St. Catharines, Ontario in 1882. Their first two children were born in Port Arthur: Matthew Silver (1882) and McKay (29 January 1884)…. Read More »

Sigurdson, Harold Edward

Private Harold Edward Sigurdson signed up in Port Arthur, Ontario in January 1918 and served overseas with the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish). He returned home to Canada in May 1919. Edward was the only child of Captain Harold and Alice Sigurdson of Kenora, Ontario. He was born in September 1892 and adopted by Harold and… Read More »

Ireland, W J

During the war W. J. Ireland served as a Lieutenant in the 98th Regiment, a militia unit based in Kenora, Ontario. The Regiment was made up of four companies: A (Fort Frances), B (Kenora), C (Emo) and D (Rainy River). The Militia and Defence Forces Lists for Canada tell us he joined B Company of… Read More »

Cox, William John

Private William John Cox was one of four brothers who served in the First World War. He was called up in 1918 and he spent a year with the Canadian Garrison Regiment in Halifax. William John, usually known as John, was born on 15 June 1895 in Gravenhurst, District of Muskoka, Ontario. He was the… Read More »

Montgomery, William Earl

With a family of eight children, five of the Montgomery sons were to enlist during the war. The Montgomery family had its roots in Lanark County in Ontario. Oswald Montgomery Sr, the son of a farmer and local justice of the peace, was born in 1857 in the township of Drummond. On 11 June 1884,… Read More »

Martin, William Henry

The second born child of Richard and Sarah (née Bardosen) Martin, William Henry Martin was born on 6 December 1886 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father, the son of Cornish immigrants, had been born at sea as they were crossing the Atlantic while his mother was from Norway. Richard had first come… Read More »