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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Thornton, Robert

Robert Thornton was born on 30 September 1893 in Norman, Ontario, a small community a couple of kilometres west of Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. Both of his parents were born in Scotland, father Peter Thornton in 1850 in Edinburgh and mother Janet Middlemas Anderson in 1857 in Paisley. The couple married… Read More »

McDonald, Wallace

Wallace McDonald was born on 30 August 1887 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. Both of his parents, James McDonald and Margaret Connell, were from Canada but likely married in 1882 in the States. Their first child, daughter Mabel, was born in 1884 in Jamestown, North Dakota. From there the family moved… Read More »

James, Ernest Walter

Ernest Walter James was born on 08 January 1891 in Christchurch, Hampshire, England.  He was the third son of blacksmith, Noah James and Augusta ELLEN Elliott.  His siblings included Nellie ‘Ellen’ (b. 1887), Henry Edward (b. 1888), Arthur Frederick (b. 1889), Reginald Wilfred (b. 1896), Margaret May (b. 1897) and Winifred Maud (b. 1903). Ernest… Read More »

Gander, Ernest James

Ernest James Gander was born on 18 May 1884 in Upper Dicker, Arlington, Sussex in England. His parents were Albert and Jane Ann (née Martin) Gander. The children born to the family were Albert Edward, George Henry, Bessie, Ernest, Edith, and Ellen Louise. For the 1891 census the family was residing in Arlington, father’s occupation… Read More »

Hamilton, Andrew

Andrew Hamilton was born on 4 March 1883 in Mulmur, Dufferin, Ontario. His father Henry (Harry) Hamilton was from Ireland while his mother Agnes Smith was from Scotland. The couple married on 20 November 1874 in Avening, a community near Mulmar. Andrew had three older siblings, William, George, and Margaret (Maggie), and four younger siblings,… Read More »

Deacon, Lester Jerome

Lester Deacon was born in 1895 in Rat Portage, now Kenora. His father Thomas Russ Deacon, a civil engineer, had moved there in 1892 as manager of the Ontario Gold Concessions and was also managing director for the Mikado Gold Mine. Thomas Deacon was a member of the town council and served as town engineer…. Read More »

Machin, Harold Arthur Clement

‘My position in this war has been very small, but I have had the privilege of serving some six months on the front ‘during the period I spent in France amid the horrors of war and human suffering and misery and the war’s leveling effects, I felt that if I survived and returned I could… Read More »

LaBelle, Daniel Leon

Daniel Leon LaBelle was born on 21 February 1880 in the township of Chichester, Pontiac, Quebec. For reasons unknown he was baptized in the nearby township of Sheenboro with the surname of Micheau, parents given as Michael Micheau, farmer, and Mary Brennan. His father usually went by the name of Michael Labelle, the name given… Read More »

Weir, George Patrick

George Patrick Weir was born on 9 August 1890 in Fergus, Ontario. His father William Anderson Weir was from Glasgow, Scotland and had immigrated to Canada in 1883. His mother Josephine Van Felson was born in Quebec City where the couple married in 1889. The marriage registration gave William’s occupation as employee of the Imperial… Read More »

Moore, Allen Thomas Joseph

Allen Thomas Joseph Moore was born on 12 August 1895 in Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai, Idaho. He moved to Rat Portage, now Kenora, in 1897 along with his widowed mother Isabella Moore (nee McDonald). Isabella’s brother Alfred, who worked for the CPR, and her sister Margaret were already living there at the time. In 1898 Isabella… Read More »