These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.
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George Kippling was born on 8 July 1887 in the District of Rainy River. His parents were Edward and Margaret (Linklater) Kippling, both having roots in the Red River Settlement. By the 1881 Canada census the couple was living in Eastern Extension of the Manitoba Extension of Manitoba, later to be part of Ontario. Listed… Read More »
Jack and Jessie Smith John Wesley (Jack) Smith was one of three brothers, the oldest of seven sons of Charles Alexander Smith of Keewatin, to enlist during the Great War. John Wesley and his brother Leonard Edward served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, while son Charles Henry Smith served with the U.S. Army John Wesley… Read More »
Gunner Kenneth Norman McRae, MM, was a law student when he enlisted in the Canadian Field Artillery in November 1915. He was killed by an artillery shell in September 1918, during the Hundred Days Offensive. According to his attestation Kenneth was born 23 August 1893 in Bayfield, Wisconsin. In the 1901 census of Canada he’s… Read More »
Percy Horace Graham was born on 6 March 1896 in Lutterworth, Haliburton, Ontario. His parents Richard Allen Graham and Rebecca Jane Bain had married in nearby Kinmount on 4 April 1894. With Richard first working as a labourer, the family was farming in the Lutterworth area by the time of Percy’s birth. The couple gave… Read More »
Although he gave Bracebridge, Ontario as his place of birth on his attestation papers, Arthur Henry Waltenbery was born in nearby Dwight, Muskoka, Ontario on 17 June 1893. His father George Waltenbery, a carpenter by trade, and mother Margaret Jane McIlwain had married in 1882 in Huntsville. Children born to the couple were Emily Jane… Read More »
George Hugh Roberts was born on 18 August 1892 in Keewatin, Ontario, a small town just west of present day Kenora. His father Owen Ellis Roberts, born in 1858 in Bala, Merionethshire in Wales, immigrated to Canada in 1882, arriving in Quebec on 26 June on the Circassian. He settled in Winnipeg where he married… Read More »
Ernest Thomas Leavesley was born on 13 July 1883 in Basford, a suburb in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. His father Charles Leavesley was from Newton Regis in Warwickshire while his mother Hannah Mee was from Basford where the couple married in 1874. Ernest had an older sister Sarah and a younger brother Charles. Charles Sr first… Read More »
James Huston Ross Woods was born on 14 January 1893 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father Arthur Woods, son of Irish immigrant Russel Woods and Quebec born Eliza Huston, grew up on a farm in the Kildare/Joliette, Quebec region. His mother Harriet Ross, daughter of William and Margaret (née Caswell) Ross was… Read More »
Henry (Harry) Marshall was born on 24 May 1879 in Butlers Marston, Warwickshire, England. His parents were John Marshall and Julia Wilcox. Henry was educated in England and the 1891 Census shows he had three sisters – Florence, Amy and Emma. His father, who worked as a labourer, died in 1896. The 1901 Census shows… Read More »
Private Alexander Nelson served with the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade in France, Belgium and Germany. He suffered gas poisoning twice but he survived the war and in April 1919 he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. According to his attestation paper Alexander was born on 23 November 1886 in Kenora, Ontario. He… Read More »