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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Eddy, Henry

Private Henry Eddy was living in the Keewatin area in northwestern Ontario when he was called up for service on 17 April 1918. He was classed as a defaulter, having failed to register under the Military Service Act the previous fall. According to his recruitment paper, he was born on 6 December 1891 in ‘Rovanary’… Read More »

Comeau, Louis Philippe

  Corporal Louis Philippe Comeau enlisted in June 1915, at age 16, and served in France and Belgium with the Canadian Field Artillery. He was wounded at the Somme but he survived the war and returned home in May 1919. Louis was the only son of Paul Comeau/Comeault and Cecile Virginie Beaubien of Winnipeg, Manitoba…. Read More »

Macaulay, Frank Gordon

Lance Sergeant Frank Gordon Macaulay joined the 16th Battalion in France in June 1915 and a year later he was killed during the Battle of Mount Sorrel. The Germans used massive amounts of artillery and blew up underground mines in their attempt to capture and hold Mount Sorrel and the surrounding area. The two-week battle… Read More »

Thompson, Robert Charles

Sapper Robert Charles Thompson enlisted in April 1915 and died at the Somme about a year and a half later. His younger brothers William and Clifford also enlisted and they both survived the war. Robert was the oldest son of William Richmond Thompson Sr. and Elizabeth O’Hara. According to census records William Sr. and Elizabeth… Read More »

Anderson, David

David Anderson was born on 19 February 1890 in Colmonell, Ayrshire, Scotland.  His parents were William Anderson and Mary Colvin. Siblings included Catherine (b. 1882) and William (b. 1885).  By the 1901 Scottish census, father William was not with the family.  In June 1910 David immigrated to Canada.  The passenger list showed him going to… Read More »

O’Flaherty, Laurence

Laurence O’Flaherty was born during the month of  October 1880 in Ballinhassig, Cork, Ireland, exact date unknown.  His parents were Laurence and Elizabeth (née Costellos) O’Flaherty. Known siblings were Michael Augustine, Margaret Mary (Peggy), Mary Elizabeth (Polly), John Patrick, Eliza Lydia, Theresa Mary (Tessie), Madeline, Emily Costello, and Annie Violet, Laurence being the third youngest…. Read More »

Guernsey, George Lionel Vares

George Guernsey was born 24 May 1895 in Rat Portage (Kenora) Ontario. His parents, originally from England, were William Robert Guernsey and Frances Fuller who had arrived in Rat Portage around 1893 from Manitoba. George was one of thirteen children in the family. George enlisted with the 94th Battalion in Kenora on 17 November 1915…. Read More »

Bellefeuille, Arthur Joseph Williard

Arthur Joseph Williard Bellefeuille was born on 25 January 1896 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His father Ebenezer Bellefeuille (aka Albini, Edward) was from the Pembroke area in Ontario. According to his later obituary Ebenezer relocated to the Rat Portage area in 1884, his parents and some of his siblings later… Read More »

Dempster, John Kane

John Kane Dempster was one of four brothers, the sons of John and Catherine (Kane) Dempster, to volunteer for service during the war. John and Catherine brought their family to Canada in 1907 from Glasgow, Scotland where John was a baker. He’d found employment for himself and his older sons at the Lake of the… Read More »

Saunders, George Edgar

George Edgar Saunders was born on 3 August 1879 in Selkirk in the Township of Walpole, Haldimand, Ontario. His parents William Saunders, a carriage maker, and Martha Graham were both from Ontario, marrying on 16 September 1874 in Selkirk. George had two older brothers, Albert Edwin (1875) and Harvey (1877), and a younger brother William… Read More »