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These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.
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Bjornstjerne Benson (alias Johnson) was born in Langruth, Manitoba. He had five brothers: Ben, Chris, Karl, Bladur and Carl, and two sisters, Gudny and Margaret. His parents were Bjorn Benedictson and Sigridur Jonsdottir. He was born 01 March, 1900, and his father was a farmer. Just after his 18th birthday, Bjorn attested with the Fort… Read More »
James Deer was born during the second quarter of 1885 in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England. His parents were Thomas and Rachel (née Witpen) Deer. Thomas was born in West Watting, Cambridgeshire and Rachel in Oxford, London. The couple married during the first quarter of 1874 in St Saviour, Southwark, London. For the 1881 England census the… Read More »
Private Richard Franklin Sexsmith and his brother Mark Sexsmith arrived in France in September 1917. They were both killed in action a month later at the Battle of Passchendaele, while serving with the 52nd Battalion. Richard was son of Joseph Sexsmith and Emily Georgina Orr of Faraday Township, Hastings County, Ontario. Joseph and Emily were… Read More »
According to his attestation papers, John Walter Blakie was born on 3 October 1887 in the Providence Bay area on Manitoulin Island, Ontario where his family farmed. His parents James Blakie and Ruth Emma George were both born in Ontario, marrying on 17 February 1876 in Uxbridge where their families farmed. James and Ruth’s first… Read More »
Private Angus Auguste Dion was the son of Ferdinand (Frank) Joseph Dion and Emilie Michaud. Ferdinand and Emilie were both born in Quebec. By the early 1880s they were married and living in the Keewatin/Rat Portage area in northwestern Ontario, where Ferdinand worked in a sawmill. They had at least eight children: Wilfred (1883), Josephine… Read More »
Thomas was born in Okehampton, Devon, England. His attestation papers gave his birth date as 18 October 1874, however other documents suggest the year of birth could be from 1869 to 1874 and the documents in his service file have May as the month of his birth. Thomas married Elizabeth Ann Evans on 24 December… Read More »
Private John Andrew Smith enlisted in March 1916 and served in France and Belgium with the 52nd (New Ontario) Battalion. During the Second World War he joined the Veterans’ Guard. John was born in Quebec, sometime between about 1880 and 1888, and moved to northwestern Ontario as a young man. He was married in the… Read More »
Private Robert Armour was married and the father of two young children when he enlisted in Winnipeg in January 1916. He was wounded in the last weeks of the war but he survived and returned home in March 1919. Robert was the oldest son of Thomas and Jane Armour of Keewatin, Ontario. He was born… Read More »
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 »
William Alexander Morrison was born on 15 February 1899 in the Rat Portage area (later named Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His father Angus John Morrison was from Orillia, Ontario while his mother Elizabeth (Lizzie) Paterson was from Dundee, Scotland. Marrying on 4 December 1889 in Rat Portage, both were living in Norman, a small community… Read More »
