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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Dion, William

William Dion was born on 12 June 1895 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, Arthur, Rose Delima, Irene, and Phillip. The family was living in Keewatin at the time of the 1901 census and in Redditt… Read More »

Jorgenson, Martin

Private Martin Jorgenson was one of five brothers who enlisted for service in the First World War. The five boys – Jacob, Martin, John,  Gustave and Thomas – came from a large family in Whitemouth, Manitoba. Martin was killed in France in June 1917 but his four brothers survived and returned home after the war…. Read More »

Symonds, Maitland Rendal

Maitland Rendal Symonds was born on 24 November 1893 in Goderich, Ontario. His father Charles Symonds was born in London, England and had immigrated to Canada with his family as a child. His mother Mary Frances Hart was from Ashfield, Ontario where the couple married on 11 June 1891. In the early years the family… Read More »

Smart, William

Sergeant William Smart was the son of David Smart and Janet Bowie of Keewatin, Ontario. David and Janet were both born in Scotland. They were married there in 1878 and William was born the following year in Kineton, Warwickshire, England. David and his family were living in Old Stratford, Warwickshire when the 1881 census was… Read More »

Boyce, Cyril Delamere

Cyril Delamere Boyce was born on 21 May 1894 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father Arthur Cyril Boyce was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England and after graduating from Osgoode Hall in Toronto, practiced law in Port Arthur, Ontario before moving to Rat Portage. He married Victoria May Louisa Machin on 14 October… 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 »

Lock, Francis George

Francis George Lock was born on 10 May 1878 in the Southwark borough of London, England. Both of his parents, Frederick and Ann Granger (Wild) Lock, were from Lyme Regis in Dorset but had married in 1877 in Lambeth, London. Frederick was a joiner/carpenter. George was their first born child, followed by Ellen, William, Annie,… Read More »

Britten, Herbert Thomas

According to his attestation papers Herbert Thomas Britten was born on 29 August 1886 in Bletchley, Buckingham, England. Elsewhere in his service record his birth place was given as Fenny Stratford, a small community on the outskirts of Bletchley. His father Edward Britten was from Lechampstead in Buckingham, while his mother Ada Maria Herbert was… Read More »

Brookes, John Henry

John Henry Brookes was born on 26 June 1884 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. His parents Thomas Brookes and Mary Jane Dean were both from Warwick, Warwickshire where they married on 22 April 1875. The couple were to make Birmingham their home where Thomas worked as a printer’s compositor. Known children born to the family were… Read More »

Glenn, Thomas Blake

Private Thomas Blake Glenn, usually known as Blake, was the son of John Thomas Glenn and Emily Brydges. He was born on 10 November 1889 in Petrolia, Lambton County, Ontario. His parents had married in 1878 in nearby Wyoming, Ontario. Blake had two older brothers, John Bertram (1879) and Frederick Aylmer (1887), both born in… Read More »