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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Lindsay, Ernest

The son of George Lindsay and Caroline Johnson, Ernest Lindsay was born on 17 May 1893 in Napanee, Ontario. His father George was a fisherman in the Belleville/Napanee area although they may also have had a small farm. Ernest had four older siblings, George, Lilly, Grace, and Herbert. Sadly, it appears that Lilly, struck by… Read More »

MacGillivray, Grant

Private Grant MacGillivray arrived in France in March 1917 and served with the 13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders). He died of wounds a month later during the Battle of Vimy Ridge. James Alexander Farquhar Grant MacGillivray, known as Grant, was born on 10 May 1880 in Ottawa, Ontario. His parents, Farquhar MacGillivray and Jane Mary MacFarlane,… Read More »

Parker, George James

Private George James Parker was 45 years old, married and a father of four when he enlisted in March 1916. He served in Canada and Great Britain for two years. George was the son of James Parker and Orpah Fawkes of Lambeth, London, England. James was a bootmaker who was born in London and his… Read More »

Wilcox, Richard Percival Cumberland

Along with 43 other Kenora and Keewatin men, Richard Percival Cumberland Wilcox stepped forward when the local militia unit, the 98th Regiment, was given a directive to raise a local group of men for the war effort from its own ranks and local volunteers. Richard had come to Canada in 1913, following two of his… Read More »

McIntosh, Donald Fergus

Donald Fergus McIntosh was born on 12 April 1892 in the village of Norman, a community a few kilometres west of Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His parents were Peter Hugh McIntosh and Isobel (Bella) Jamieson, the couple marrying on 30 December 1885 in VanKleek Hill, Ontario. Their first child, son Hamish… Read More »

Knox, Thomas Robert

Robert Knox was born in Linaskea, Fermanagh, Ireland, the son of Dr. Thomas Knox and Louisa Sandels. A bank clerk, in 1913 he immigrated to Canada, arriving at St. John New Brunswick aboard the Letitia. He was bound for Toronto where he’d gained a position with the Imperial Bank, and he was then transferred to… Read More »

Cameron, Ronald

Private Ronald Cameron enlisted in Kenora, Ontario in March 1916. He was wounded at the Somme that fall while serving with the 16th Battalion, and he was invalided back to Canada in March 1917. Ronald (aka Ranald) was born on 21 September 1880 in Alexandria, Lochiel Township, Glengarry County, Ontario. His parents, Duncan Cameron and… Read More »

Montgomery, William Earl

With a family of eight children, five of the Montgomery sons were to enlist during the war. The Montgomery family had its roots in Lanark County in Ontario. Oswald Montgomery Sr, the son of a farmer and local justice of the peace, was born in 1857 in the township of Drummond. On 11 June 1884,… Read More »

Maluish, Harry Walter

Heinrick Maluish was born in Rat Portage (Kenora) on 06 October 1897. His parents came from two different worlds. Ernest Duncan Maluish arrived from England and settled in Rat Portage in 1880. His mother Katharina Frankenberger arrived from Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany in 1887. The two met at a local boarding house and married in the Anglican… Read More »

Bray, Cecil

Sapper Cecil Bray was born in England and living in Kenora, Ontario when the war started. He returned to Great Britain and enlisted with the Royal Engineers, serving with them for four years and earning a Military Medal. Cecil was the youngest son of John Joseph Bray and Mary Ann Southam Shelbourne of Peterborough, Northamptonshire,… Read More »