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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Lalonde, Frank

Private Frank Lalonde was a widower with four young children when he enlisted in December 1915 at age 42. He served for three years in Canada, the UK and France. Frank was born on 24 January 1873 on Allumette Island in Pontiac County, Quebec. He was baptized two months later in the mission church at… Read More »

Butt, Edwin Frederick

Private Edwin Frederick Butt was called up in February 1918, at age 20. He served in France and Belgium for six months with the 52nd (New Ontario) Battalion. Edwin was the son of William Butt and Eleanor Kate Pearce of Kenora, Ontario. He was born in Rat Portage (later called Kenora) on 6 July 1897… Read More »

Lodge, William Edward

When Private William Edward Lodge enlisted he was 44 years old, married and the father of nine children. He served for 2-1/2 years in England and returned home to Kenora, Ontario in January 1919. William was born in July 1871 in St. Luke’s, London, England, the son of William and Hester/Esther Lodge. He was the… Read More »

Dougherty, Charles James

Corporal Charles James Dougherty was the son of Thomas Arthur and Mary Dougherty of Kenora, Ontario. Thomas was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and his wife Mary (née O’Keefe) was from Lacrosse, Wisconsin. They moved to Canada around 1887, settling in the small town of Rat Portage about four years later. They had five children, three… Read More »

Tompkins, Nicholas

Nicholas Tompkins was born on 5 September 1868 in Margaree, Inverness on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. He was the first born son of farmers John Nicholas Tompkins and Judith Coardy who had married 8 October 1867 in Margaree. Both of his parents were born in Nova Scotia to Irish immigrants. Nick had four… Read More »

Humphrey, John Edgar Alexander

Private John Edgar Alexander Humphrey was born on 29 November 1894 in Dixville, Barnston Township, Quebec. His father Samuel Edgar Humphrey, a farmer, was from the U.S. and his mother Isabelle Murray was born in Quebec to Scottish parents. Samuel and Isabelle were married in Coaticook, Barnston County in 1884 and they had at least… Read More »

Komatich, Nick

Private First Class Nick (Nicholas) Komatich was born in St. Anthony, Stearns County, Minnesota on 4 February 1881. He grew up in Stearns County and by the time he was 14 he was working away from home as a farm labourer. He immigrated to Canada in 1911, at age 30, and settled in the town… Read More »

Cardinal, Rene Joseph

Private Rene Joseph Cardinal was working for the railroad when he was called up in May 1918, at age 23. He served in Canada until a month after the Armistice. Rene was born on 25 January 1895 in Rat Portage, Ontario. His parents, Jules Hyacinthe Cardinal and Seraphine Charron, were both from Quebec. They had… Read More »

Atkinson, Lawrence Edward

Lawrence Edward Atkinson was born on 1 March 1895 in Moncton, New Brunswick. His father Harvey Alexander (Harry) Atkinson was from Shediac, New Brunswick while his mother Alice Gertrude Kennedy had been born in the States, her parents also from New Brunswick. The 1891 census found the family living in Moncton where Harvey was working… Read More »

MacKenzie, Harry Stuart

Harry Stuart MacKenzie was one of three sons and two daughters of William and Lizzie Mackenzie, of Kenora, Ontario.  His parents were born  in Scotland and emigrated separately to Canada in the 1880s, meeting and marrying in Brandon, Manitoba in 1889 where William worked as a dry goods store clerk. Harry, born in 1893, was… Read More »