Kenora Great War Project

 

You can also view an Alphabetical List

The People

soldier_photobar

These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.

Search by name, or filter the search results using the list of options below.

Currie, Sidney Wright

Private Sidney Wright Currie enlisted in a forestry unit in January 1917, at age 35, and served overseas for two years. Sidney was the son of Archibald and Annie Currie of Souris East, King’s County, Prince Edward Island. He was born in Souris East (now the Town of Souris) on 14 March 1881. He had… Read More »

Wulff, Oscar

Private Oscar Wulff was the son of Charles and Helen Wulff of Glasgow, Scotland. Charles was born in Hamburg, Germany and Helen in Scotland. They were married in 1883. Oscar was born in Glasgow in 1892 and he had at least four older siblings: Ella (1885), Matilda (1886), Carl (1888) and Margaret “Daisy” (1890). His… Read More »

Victory, John William

John Willam Victory signed his first set of attestation papers in Kenora, Ontario on 26 December 1914. His date and place of birth was given as 7 January 1876 in Nelson’s River in Nova Scotia, next of kin as his mother Nesbitt Victory in Nelson’s River, and occupation as labourer. Kenora newspapers of the day… Read More »

McLay, James

James McLay was one of many Scottish immigrants to Canada and the Keewatin/Kenora area in the first decade of the last century. James, a millwright, came to Keewatin, Ontario in June of 1904 when he was 31 and took a job at one of the local sawmills. In September of that year his wife Mary… Read More »

Sewell, Claude

Claude Sewell was born on 21 March 1896 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. Both of his parents John Sewell and Louisa Sarah Parr were from England, immigrating to Canada around 1891 according to later census records. Their first child, daughter Gladys, was born in 1893 in Rat Portage where John was working as… Read More »

Tanner, Frank

Birth date and location: According to his obituary, Richard Frank Tanner was born April 19, 1900 in Fordingbridge, Lymington, Hampshire, England. He went by Frank his entire life. In the 1901 and 1911 census, however, his birthplace is given as Everton, Lymington, Hampshire, Civil Parish of Milford, and Ecclesiastical Parish, All Saints. Frank’s parents were… Read More »

Sullivan, John

John Sullivan was likely born on 18 November 1891 in the Registration district of Bantry, County Cork in Ireland. His attestation papers gave the date as 18 November 1892 and his British Columbia death record as 18 November 1890 but the birth indexes for the area had only one listing for a John Sullivan, registered… Read More »

Jackson, Wellington

Wellington Jackson was born on 11 April 1888 in North Monaghan, Peterborough, Ontario. His father William Henry Jackson, son of Irish immigrants, was from South Monaghan while his mother Christiana Annie Moncrief was from nearby Otonabee. The couple married on 3 June 1880 in Peterborough. Wellington had an older brother William Adair, and younger siblings… Read More »

Groeneveld, John

Private John Groeneveld joined the 94th Battalion in February 1916 in Kenora, Ontario. He served in Canada for four months and was discharged in June 1916 for medical reasons. John or Johannes was born on 20 July 1898 in Woerden, Holland (the Netherlands). His parents were Herman Groeneveld, a carpenter, and Tryntje Timmerman. Herman and… Read More »