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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Pike, James Francis

Acting Corporal James Francis Pike enlisted in Winnipeg in November 1915 and went overseas the following summer. He served in England with the Canadian Army Pay Corps and returned to Canada in April 1919. According to his attestation paper, James was born in Lime Springs, Iowa on 25 April 1877. However census records, his marriage… Read More »

Sexsmith, Richard Franklin

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 »

Larman, William Arthur

William Arthur Larman was born on 14 May 1892 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire in England. His father William was from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, while his mother Eliza Ann Parrott was from Hatfield, a community about 25 kilometres south of Hitchin. Over the years William SR was employed as a goods guard for the Great Northern Railway. At… Read More »

Parmeter, Wallace Augustus

Wallace Augustus  Parmeter was born on 8 June 1894 in Bletchy in the district of Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, England. His father Frank William Parmeter was from Bletchy where his parents, classified as hotel keepers on census documents, operated the Station Hotel and Refreshment Room. His mother Juliet Emma Chapman was from Uppingham, Rutland where… Read More »

McRae, Kenneth Norman

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 »

Beaton, Daniel Percival

Daniel Percival (Percy) Beaton was born on 15 December 1897 in Keewatin, Ontario. He was the son of Dougald Beaton and Mary Anne (Annie) Carmody who had married in 1883 in Rat Portage (now known as Kenora). Percy’s father died in 1900. Percy’s siblings included:  Florence May (1885-1918) who married Cyril Leslie Galloway;  Sarah V…. Read More »

Cardinal, Elphege Louis

Elphege Louis Cardinal was born on 12 April 1898 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His father Louis Cardinal was from Montebello, Quebec and moved to the area around 1894. His mother Evelina Roy was from Point Gatineau, Quebec and had relocated to nearby Keewatin with her parents and siblings sometime before… Read More »

Cooke, Joseph

Joseph Cooke was born on 26 March 1887 in Sandwith, Cumberland, England. His father Samuel Cooke, a coal miner, and mother Sarah Bell married on 28 November 1874 in the parish of St Bees, Cumberland. It appears that Sarah already had a son at the time of the marriage, John Bell who was born in… Read More »

Clarke, Robert Lloyd

Robert Lloyd Clarke was born on 9 October 1895 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father John Ernest Clarke was born in Derbyshire in England but grew up in Wales as his family had moved there a couple of years after his birth. By the 1881 Wales census for Festiniog, Merionethshire, John was… Read More »

Folster, James Stewart

James Stewart Folster was born on 6 November 1892 in Orillia, Ontario. His father John Fraser Folster was from Birsay, Orkney in Scotland while his mother Margaret Linklater was from Sandwick, Orkney where the couple married on 11 February 1886. At the time of the marriage John was working as a road labourer in Birsay… Read More »