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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Kinney, Frank

Frank was the son of Lea (Villeneuve) and Joseph Kinney and was born in 1892 Keewatin Ontario. Frank grew up in a large family of 2 sisters and 4 brothers.  When Frank enlisted in 1915, he was a trainman for the CNR. Two other brothers (Thomas James and Joseph Jerry) also saw service in WW1…. Read More »

Chapman, William James

William James Chapman was born on 01 November 1864 in Belfast, Ireland. He was the oldest son of Benjamin Chapman and Maria Chew. In 1866 the Chapman family immigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto where Benjamin practiced his trade of watchmaker and jeweler. Other children in the family were Elizabeth, Charles, Julia, Edward and… Read More »

Lennox, Albert Bertram

Albert Bertram (Bert) Lennox was born on 25 February 1885 in Banda, Simcoe, Ontario. Both of his parents William and Jane (Wilcox) Lennox were from farms in the area and had married on 12 March 1884 in nearby Barrie. Their first born child, Bert had younger siblings Jessie Jane (1887-1962), William Henry (Harry) (1889-1960), and… Read More »

Bacon, William James

Although a birth record was not found, according to his later attestation and death record William James Bacon was born on 29 January 1882 in London, England. On various England censuses his father was given as Henry John Bacon and his mother as Elizabeth James, the couple marrying on 16 September 1883 in Marylebone, London…. Read More »

McRae, Alexander

Private Alexander (Alick) McRae enlisted with the 1st Canadian Contingent shortly after the war started and by April 1915 he was in the trenches in Belgium. He was wounded twice in the next three months, the second time seriously, and he died in a hospital in Edinburgh in August 1915. Alick grew up in Brora,… Read More »

Hansen, Einer

Along with his twin brother Rudolph Eugene, Einer Sixtus Hansen was born on 18 October 1900 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father Johan Haaken (John) Hansen, a marine engineer, was born in Norway and had immigrated to Canada with his widowed father and some of his siblings in the late 1880’s, first… Read More »

Dickinson, Thomas

Lieutenant Thomas Dickinson was commissioned as an officer in the 94th Battalion and served in France with a machine gun unit. He was wounded in May 1917 and invalided back to Canada later that year. Thomas was the oldest son of James Dickinson (Dickenson) and Alice Pendlebury. James was a publisher, editor and journalist. He… Read More »

Giving, Martin

Corporal Martin Giving was living in Kenora, Ontario when he was called up under the U.S. draft in July 1918. He served in the U.S. Army for five months. Martin was the oldest son of Ole and Anna Giving (Geving/Gjeving) of Haugen, Aitken County, Minnesota. Ole and Anna were both born in Norway and they… Read More »

Clutterbuck, Lawrence

Private Lawrence Clutterbuck enlisted in Calgary in February 1915, at age 17, and served in France and Belgium with the 18th Battalion and the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. He suffered shell shock and shell gas poisoning but he recovered and returned home in June 1919. Lawrence was the son of Austin Clutterbuck and Ruth Land… Read More »