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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Harwood, Frederick

Sergeant Frederick Harwood enlisted with the Canadian Army Service Corps in February 1916 and served in France and Belgium for three years. He returned to Canada in July 1919. Fred was the only son of William Harwood and Sarah Harlow of Boston, Lincolnshire, England. William was a butcher and he and his wife were both… Read More »

Ringrose, Herbert

Herbert Ringrose was born on 20 December 1896 in Beverley, Yorkshire in England. His father John William Ringrose was from Beverley while his mother Emily Camelia Hickford was from Edmonton in Middlesex, with the couple marrying during the first quarter of 1900 in the registration district of Beverley. John worked as a tanners labourer, likely… Read More »

Dempster, William McLay

William McLay Dempster was one of two sons of William and Margaret Dempster of Stirling, Scotland to enlist from Keewatin during the war. William and his brother Robert had come to Canada in 1912, settling Keewatin where their uncle James and his wife Ann lived. All the men worked for the Lake of the Woods… Read More »

Dion, Angus Auguste

Private Angus Auguste Dion was the son of Ferdinand (Frank) Joseph Dion and Emilie Michaud. Ferdinand and Emilie were both born in Quebec. By the early 1880s they were married and living in the Keewatin/Rat Portage area in northwestern Ontario, where Ferdinand worked in a sawmill. They had at least eight children: Wilfred (1883), Josephine… Read More »

Southworth, William Esta

Private William Esta Southworth enlisted in 1915 and served in France and Belgium with the 16th Battalion. He was wounded twice, in May 1916 and April 1917, but he survived the war and returned to Canada in February 1919. William was the son of Charles William Southworth and Fanny May Stowe of Revelstoke, British Columbia…. Read More »

Skeet, Michael

According to his attestation papers, Michael Skeet was born on in September of 1896 at Bear Point on Lake of the Woods, Kenora. He was the son of George and Mawkos Skeet who were both living at the time of attestation. With occupation given as trapper and his father George at Bear Point as next… Read More »

Shouldice, Arthur Alexander

Arthur Alexander Shouldice was born on 9 February 1885 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father Joseph Shouldice was from the Gatineau River/Wakefield area of Quebec and had come west to Winnipeg in 1877 to work on CPR construction. His mother Christina Sutherland was from West River, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. The couple… Read More »

McGuffin, Emery Gordon

Emery Gordon McGuffin was born on 22 September 1895 in the Glenella, Manitoba area (birth registered in the RM of Lansdowne). His parents John McGuffin and Ellen Sugden were both from West Nissouri, Middlesex, Ontario as given on their marriage record of 10 April 1888 in nearby Thorndale. Around 1894 John and Ellen moved to… Read More »

Park, Gilbert Earl

Gilbert Earl McConnell was born on 16 October 1898 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario, confirmed by his Ontario birth record. His parents Robert McConnell and Eliza Jane Copeland, although from Quebec, were both of Irish origin. They married on 14 May 1890 in Kazabazua, La-Vallee-de-la Gatineau in Quebec. The 1891 census found the… Read More »

Walsh, Maurice Andrew

The Somme Offensive was a series of battles that lasted from July to November 1916 and resulted in enormous casualties for both the Allied and German armies. The Canadian Corps moved to the Somme area in late August and their first major engagement began in mid-September. Private Maurice Andrew Walsh was one of 24,000 casualties… Read More »