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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Sauerbrei, Mark

Mark Sauerbrei was born on 25 April 1896 in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain. His father John Sauerbrei was born in Bavaria, Germany (according to the 1901 England census record) and from an early age was involved in the hotel management business, starting his career in Belgium. Over the course of his life he managed… Read More »

McLellan, Murdoch

Murdoch McLellan was one of many recent immigrants to enlist for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War. Murdoch, born in Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland in 1894, came to Canada in the spring of 1913 to settle in Keewatin, Ontario where his mother Mary’s brother, James Dempster, had settled several years earlier along… Read More »

Ogemah, Grant

Private Grant Ogemah enlisted in July 1916 and served in France and Belgium with the 44th and 8th Battalions. He was invalided back to Canada in September 1918 due to illness and he passed away three years later. Grant was Ojibway and a member of Shoal Lake #39 First Nation in northwestern Ontario. He was… Read More »

Dungan, George

Private George Dungan enlisted in April 1916 and served in France with the 78th Battalion. He spent the last three months of the war as a prisoner but he survived and returned to Canada in March 1919. George was the son of Robert Dungan and Sarah Kingstone of Ballydehob, County Cork, Ireland. Robert was a… Read More »

Bunting, Stanley

Private Stanley Bunting was the oldest son of Robert James Bunting and Alice Agar Fitzgerald. James and Alice were both early residents of Rat Portage, Ontario, arriving there with their families around 1880. They were married in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in 1882 and they had at least three children: Violetta (1887), Stanley (1889)… Read More »

Alcock, Edward Joseph

Edward Joseph Alcock was born on 10 December 1896 in Rat Portage (later named Kenora), Ontario. His parents were George and Emma (née Barker) Alcock who had married 01 January 1883 in Faraday, Hastings, Ontario. At some point after the 1891 Canada census the family moved to Saskatchewan but by the 1901 Canada census they… Read More »

Baxendale, William James

William James Baxendale was born 07 October 1898 in Rat Portage (Kenora), Ontario.  His parents were James Thomas and Amelia Maria Baxendale. He had two older sisters – Violet and Myrtle.  His father worked as a car inspector/repairer for the CPR. William received his education in Kenora. In November of 1915 he commenced working for… Read More »

Poole, John

During the First World War more than 11,000 employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company enlisted for service and 1,116 of them gave their lives. Sapper John Poole was working as a locomotive fireman for the CPR in Kenora, Ontario when he signed up in February 1916. He arrived in France later that year and… Read More »

Shirvell, Thomas William John

The second born child, Thomas William John Shirvell was born during the first quarter of 1889 in Christchurch, Hampshire, England. His parents Thomas Edward and Mary Jane (née Scott) Shirvell had married in Christchurch during the last quarter of 1886. As baker, confectioner, and pastry cook, Thomas’s parents operated  a bakery from their home. Other… Read More »

Hughes, James

Acting Corporal James Hughes was married and the father of three young daughters when he enlisted in 1915. He was wounded at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917 and he served in Great Britain for the rest of the war, returning to Canada in July 1919. James was born in Duntocher, Dunbartonshire, Scotland… Read More »