Kenora Great War Project

 

You can also view an Alphabetical List

The People

soldier_photobar

These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.

Search by name, or filter the search results using the list of options below.

Holland, Tip James

Tip James Holland was born in 1866 in Cheshire, England. His parents were George and Mary Holland. He came to the Kenora district in June of 1902 as a widower. On 19 October 1903 he married widow Isabella Mansfield (nee Tweedley) in Rat Portage (Kenora). She had three children: Margaret Henrietta, Mary Isobel and John…. Read More »

McMurphy, Lionel Dougald

Private Lionel Dougald McMurphy enlisted in October 1914 and served overseas for four years, most of that time with the 27th Battalion. He was wounded twice but he survived the war and returned home in May 1919. Lionel was the son of Dougald McMurphy and Olivia Jane Welsh. His parents were both born in Ontario,… Read More »

Mongrain, Frederick Alfred

Frederick Alfred (Fred) Mongrain was born on 3 October 1895 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father Captain Alfred Mongrain was from Trois Rivieres, Quebec and had come to the area around 1877. His mother Marie Perrault was born in St Anne, Manitoba  and had moved to Rat Portage in the mid 1880’s…. Read More »

Dempster, Robert McLay

Robert McLay Dempster was one of two sons of William and Margaret Dempster of Stirling Scotland to enlist during the war. Robert and his brother William came to Canada in 1912 and settled in Keewatin where their uncle James and his wife Anne lived. All the men worked for the Keewatin flour mill, Robert as… Read More »

Hewitt, Edward

Edward Hewitt was born on 5 November 1890 in Gortnamoney, Moira in County Down in northern Ireland. His parents William Hewitt and Mary Ann Costley were both from the area, marrying on 3 April 1888 in Moira. At the time of Edward’s birth William’s occupation was given as ploughman on his birth record while later… Read More »

Wingfield, Frederick

Frederick Wingfield was born on 7 April 1893 in Hasting, Sussex, England. His father Henry Wingfield and mother Sarah Breeds, both from Hastings, had married on 4 September 1887 in Hastings. Henry was a fisherman by trade. Children born to the family were Mary (1888), Henry John (1890), Fred, William Edward (1898), and Alfred Charles… Read More »

Sansom, Edward Cecil

According to his attestation papers, Edward was born on 13 September 1897 in West York; a birth registration for Edward lists the county as Ontario while a family tree on ancestry.ca gives his place of birth as Zephyr, Scott Township. Edward’s father Albert was from London, England while his mother Elizabeth Ann Foote was from… Read More »

Leach, John Owen

Captain John Owen Leach enlisted with the first Canadian contingent in September 1914 and three months later he was commissioned as an officer in the British army. He went on to serve with the Royal Flyings Corps and the Royal Air Force and earned both the Military Cross and the Air Force Cross. John was… Read More »

Woodrow, Bertie

Bertie Woodrow, a tailor by trade, served from the opening days of the war until its end in two different armies, earning two sets of service medals. Born in Exeter, Devon, England, Bertie was the second of three children of John and Emily Woodrow. His brother Henry John was born in 1880 and sister Louisa… Read More »

Winchester, Albert

Albert Winchester was born on 3 August 1883 in Brightling, Sussex, England. His father David Winchester was from Brightling while his mother Ellen Prevett was from Worth in Sussex. The couple had married in early 1878 in Brightling. David was a carpenter by trade and in latter years was listed as an estate carpenter on… Read More »