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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LaRiviere, Gedeon Joseph

Gedeon Joseph LaRiviere was born on 10 July 1887 in Saint Marcel, L’Islet, Quebec. His parents were Gedeon and Marie Louise (née Messier) LaRiviere who had married in 1884 in Saint Marcel where their families farmed. Three children were born to the couple in Quebec, Joseph Antoine (1885-1885), Marie Louise (1886-1969), and Joseph. By the… Read More »

Gunn, James

James Gunn was born on 31 January 1887 in the district of St Andrew in Edinburgh, Scotland. Both of his parents were from Caithness in northern Scotland, his father Alexander Gunn from Watten and his mother Margaret Sutherland from Spitall Quarry, Wick. Alexander was working as a commercial traveller when the couple married on 5… Read More »

Shaw, Stanley Richard

Stanley Richard Shaw was born on 9 November 1896 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His parents William Shaw and Harriett Jane Swan were both from England, marrying on 14 May 1883 in Wallasey, Cheshire. The couple gave birth to two children in Wallasey, son William Beresford in 1885 and daughter Beatrice… Read More »

Gagnon, William Alfred

William Alfred Gagnon, the second of six sons of Joseph Gagnon and Victoria Madore, was born in Norman, Ontario on 28 March 1894. He was raised in Keewatin. The 1911 census shows William living in Keewatin his parents and siblings. He was working as a teamster at the sawmill. On 13 July 1914 William married… 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 »

Young, Isaac

Lance Corporal Isaac Young enlisted in the fall of 1915 and served in France with an infantry unit. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Vimy Ridge and returned to Canada eight months later. Isaac was the son of Isaac Young Sr. and Jane Johnston of Kenora, Ontario. Isaac Sr., a farmer, was born… Read More »

Gordon, Charles

Charles Brown Gordon was born to Alexander & Mary (McLeod) Gordon on June 29, 1889 in Maybole, Scotland, the 12th   of 14 children. With automation coming to Maybole resulting in job losses, several of the Gordon clan set sail for Canada coming directly Keewatin, Ontario in 1906 – including Charlie. Charlie was a teamster… Read More »

Barnhardt, Charles Nelson

Early Life and Family:    Charles Nelson Barnhardt was born on January 15, 1896 to Simeon and Margaret Barnhardt in Kenora, Ontario. They had only recently moved from Southern Ontario.      Although the ancestral background of the Barnhardts was German, Simeon Ashley was born in Ontario, September 8, 1864. His father and grandfather Barnhardt… Read More »

Reynolds, Arthur

Arthur Reynolds was born on January 1, 1892 in Blackheath, Kent in England. Upon enlistment, he gave his place of birth as Greenwich, England and named his next of kin as his mother Mary, still living in Lee, Kent England as of 1917. He appears to have immigrated to Canada to take advantage of work… Read More »

Hamilton, Alexander

Alexander Hamilton was born on 26 September 1893 in the parish of Cambusnethan in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Both of his parents, Alexander Hamilton and Mary Lindsay, were from the area, marrying on 24 June 1892 in Cambusnethan. At the time of the marriage Alexander Sr’s occupation was given as sawmill engine keeper. Other children born… Read More »