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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Cherry, John Joseph Roland

John Joseph Cherry was born on 19 August 1890 in Keewatin, Ontario. His parents were Thomas Joseph Cherry and Caroline Hawkin. Siblings included Cecil, Agnes, Marion and Norah. John’s father was born in Ireland and immigrated to Canada 1871. He was a Reeve for Keewatin in 1907 and 1908 becoming Keewatin’s first Mayor in 1909… Read More »

Fortin, Edgar

Private Edgar Fortin enlisted in April 1916, at age 17, and arrived in France four months later. He was killed in November 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele. Edgar was the youngest son of Charles François Fortin and Emilie Jolicouer of Kenora, Ontario. Charles was from the Gaspé region in eastern Quebec and Emilie was… Read More »

Stibbard, Bert Cyril

Bertie Cyril Stibbard was born on 23 January 1885 in Sandon, Essex in England. His father Henry James Farnham Stibbard, a wheelwright, publican, and carpenter, was from Sandon while his mother Sarah Margaret Taverner was from nearby Hatfield Peverel where the couple had married in 1878. With the exception of a couple of years spent… Read More »

Clark, Charles Alfred

‘The Peterborough Boys’ was a name given to a group of young men from the Peterborough area of England who made their way to live in Kenora.  Many of them were single, working for the railway and living at the Y.M.C.A. in Kenora. They spent countless hours together in their spare time to socialize and… Read More »

Bosman, Russell

Private Russell Bosman enlisted in January 1915 and served in France as a lorry driver with a supply column. He returned home to Canada in 1917 after his father died and he was discharged from service on compassionate grounds. Russell was the oldest son of John and Laura Bosman of Brandon, Manitoba. John grew up… Read More »

Hamel, Joseph

Joseph Hamel (Hamill) was the son of Anna Leclair/Leclerc and her first husband Thomas Pelletier. Anna and Thomas were married in 1899 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Joseph was born there on 5 July 1900, his birth registered as Joseph Anthony Stephen Pelletier. Thomas appears to have died by 1901 and Anna then married Henry Hamel…. Read More »

Rushton, Ernest

Ernest Rushton was born on 26 February 1895 in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. His father Walter and mother Letitia (née Booth) Rushton had married in Worcester in 1894. While in England Walter’s occupation on the censuses was given as ‘China Printer Earth’. There were four children in the Rushton family, Ernest (b 1895), Percy Frank  (b… Read More »

Hewitt, Edward

Edward Hewitt was born on 5 November 1890 in Gortnamoney, Moira in County Down in northern Ireland. His parents William Hewitt and Mary Ann Costley were both from the area, marrying on 3 April 1888 in Moira. At the time of Edward’s birth William’s occupation was given as ploughman on his birth record while later… Read More »

Gauthier, Albert

Albert Gauthier was born on 06 February 1898 in Norman, Ontario.   His parents were Joseph Gauthier (a miner) and Rose Delima Messier. Marie Louise (Gagnon), Arthur and Archie were his siblings. Albert spent much of his life in the Canadian wilderness – from the turn of the century to the late 1960’s.   He… Read More »

Byington, Charles Floyd

Charles Floyd Byington was born on 10 May 1896 in Portland, Leeds, Ontario. His parents were Charlotte Byington and George Warren but he was raised by his grandparents Napoleon and Ruth (Dunn) Byington as their son. Napoleon and Ruth’s children, thought as siblings to Floyd, were David (1872), George (1875-1942), Milton (1877), Charlotte (1880-1973), Johanna… Read More »