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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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 »

Cossey, Hylton Herbert

Hylton Herbert Cossey was born on 01 March 1894 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England. His parents, Herbert Thomas Cossey and Rose Annie Lake were married in Yarmouth in 1893. They had four children – Hylton, Ruby, Claude and Donald when they immigrated to Canada in June of 1903.  Herbert was a boat builder and he… Read More »

Sansom, Stanley Bertram

Stanley Bertram Sansom was born on 23 February 1895 in Zephyr, Ontario. His father Alfred was from London, England while his mother Elizabeth Ann Foote was from Scott Township in the County of Ontario. Alfred, previously married to Sarah Ann Sutton who died in 1887, had two children from this marriage, Ethel Beatrice (1885-1965) and… Read More »

Smith, Frederick Thomas

Frederick Thomas (Fred) Smith was born on 14 June 1893 in the area of Tenmile House, Queens County, Prince Edward Island. He was baptized on the 21st in St Bonaventure Roman Catholic Church in nearby Tracadie Cross. His parents Thomas Smith, a blacksmith, and Eliza(beth) McQuaid were born in Prince Edward Island, Thomas the son… Read More »

Rideout, Joseph Harding

Private Joseph Harding Rideout enlisted in September 1915 and served overseas for three years, about half that time with the Royal Canadian Regiment. He was wounded at the Somme but he survived the war and returned home in March 1919. Joseph was the only son of Harding Rideout and his first wife Lydia Dolen. Harding… 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 »

Gordon, Alexander

Alexander (Dud) Gordon was born July 20, 1896 in Maybole, Scotland to James Wm McLeod & Helen Douglas (Gibson) Gordon.   Dud arrived in Canada aboard the SS Corinthian with his parents and two siblings,  coming directly to Keewatin, Ontario on September   1, 1906 (from his father, James’ diary).   Two more siblings, James… Read More »

Mappin, Walter

Although he gave his date of birth on his WW1 attestation papers as 15 July 1874 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, Walter Mappin was likely born in 1863, birth registered in the 3rd quarter in Ecclesall Bierslow, a township within Sheffield. Over the years various documents show that Walter went by the forename of Walter, William,… Read More »

Dion, Arthur

Arthur Dion was born on 29 November 1893 in Rat Portage (now Kenora), Ontario. His parents were Elziard Dion and Clara Brissette who had married in Rat Portage in 1891. Siblings included Edward, William, Rose Delima, Irene, and Phillip. The family was living in Keewatin at the time of the 1901 census and in Redditt… Read More »

Boyes, Henry George William

Henry George William (Harry) Boyes was born on 24 March 1896 in Sundridge, Ontario. His father Richard Edward Boyes’ family first farmed in the Tossorontio area of South Simcoe in Ontario before moving to the Joly and Strong and Chapman subdistricts in the Muskoka area, also to farm. His mother Orinda Parney Benton Lowden was… Read More »