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.

Dumma, William Silver

William Silver Dumma was born to William Dumma and Janet (Silver) Dumma on December 20th, 1880 in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland.  His father William Senior was listed as a Superintendent of Housing in Edinburgh in 1881. There were seven children, including: Margaret (1866-71); Helen Hay (1867-1852); James (1868-1953, came to Canada in 1894, worked… Read More »

Wills, Benjamin

Benjamin was born to Joseph Wills and Beatrice King  on 11 December 1890, in the Cornwall district of England. In the 1901 English census he  was living with his mother and sisters Minnie (4 years older), Lillie (two years younger) and Olive (8 years younger). He was in Canada when he enlisted as an expat,… Read More »

Richmond, Arthur Gordon

  Gunner Arthur Gordon Richmond was a student when he enlisted in January 1916, at age 17. He served in Great Britain, France and Belgium with the Canadian Field Artillery and returned home in July 1919. Arthur was born on 1 July 1898 in Drummond Township, Lanark County, Ontario. His parents, George James Richmond and… Read More »

Birbeck, Ivan

Ivan Birbeck was born on 26 April 1899 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. According to William Shurtleff’s Shurtleff and Lawton Families: Genealogy and History and other sources, Ivan’s father Thomas Edson Birbeck was born in 1865 in Leeds, Yorkshire in England. At a young age he ran away from home and… Read More »

Ronald, Gordon Campbell

Gordon Campbell Ronald was born on 1 December 1888 in Drumbo, Ontario. His parents were James Edwin Ronald and Christina Mcpherson. Siblings included: William Daniel (1886-1929), Jennette (1891-1951), Margaret Helen (1895-1925) and James Edwin (1897-1923). Gordon lived in the Blenheim area of Ontario with his family until some time after 1911 when he headed north… Read More »

Ackabee, Michael

Michael Mathew Ackabee was born on 03 April 1892 at Sandy Lake, north of Dinorwic, and spent his whole life in the district except for his time with the CEF during WW1. His parents were Andrew Ackabee and Mary Gilbert (Clear Sky Skaychommskook). He had at least four siblings – Elizabeth, William, Nancy and Joseph…. Read More »

Mathias, Leonard Stewart

Leonard Stewart Mathias was one of the first contingent volunteers from Kenora. His name was among a list of 24 local men published in the Kenora newspaper on Aug. 12, 1914 who had passed medical exams for service after answering an Aug. 9 call for volunteers from the 98th (Rainy River and Kenora) Regiment. Leonard… Read More »

McKittrick, Elmer Samuel

Elmer Samuel McKittrick was born on 17 October 1892 in Edmonton, Alberta. His father Austin Gordon McKittrick was from Orangeville, Ontario where his father, an Irish immigrant, had opened a foundry. His mother Jane (Jennie) Timney was from near Maple Valley, Grey, Ontario but by the time of the 1881 census was living with her… Read More »

Gault, Robert

Robert was the oldest son of John and Eliza Gault of Keewatin, Ontario. He was born in Hastings County, Ontario in June 1865 or 1866. His father had emigrated from Ireland as a child and his mother was born in Ontario. Robert had at least one brother and five sisters: William, Matilda, Eliza, Kate, Alice… Read More »

Huggins, William Clarence

William Clarence Huggins was born on 19 November 1890 in Keewatin, Ontario, a small community about 6 kilometres west of Kenora in northwestern Ontario. Both of his parents, William Caro Huggins and Eliza(beth) Harriet Betsworth, were born in England. William Sr immigrated to Canada as a young child with his parents and siblings and along… Read More »