Gunne, Livingston Gilbert

Livingston Gilbert (Bert) Gunne was born on 11 January 1890 in Glenboro, RM of South Cypress, Manitoba. Although his parents William James and Alzina Evelyn (née Livingston) Gunne were from Ontario, the couple had married 29 August 1888 in the RM of South Cypress. William was a physician. A second child, daughter Dorothea Vashti was born in 1892. By 1900 the family had moved to Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) where daughter Kathleen was born.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Bert attended the University of Manitoba Medical College, graduating as a physician and surgeon. First serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps, his date of entry to the war was recorded as 12 December 1915 with the rank of Lieutenant. The following February a letter from Bert from the front was published in the Kenora Miner and News. Returning to Canada in late July of 1916 aboard the Metagama, Bert enlisted with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, No 10 Training Depot in Winnipeg on 14 December 1916. A year later he was struck off strength in Winnipeg for special duty, embarking for China on 20 December 1917. In China he was responsible for carrying out medical examinations of recruits for the Chinese Labour Corps who were to proceed to France. Bert arrived back in Canada (Vancouver) on 27 March 1918 aboard the  Coconada where he continued to serve with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in Canada, his service ending 24 December 1919 in Winnipeg on demobilization.

On 9 October 1920, in Winnipeg, Bert married Lillian Steep, daughter of Dr John and Hester Steep of Winnipeg. The couple went on to have at least one child, a daughter Daphne. Bert returned to Kenora where he took up practice with his father William for thirty years. While in Kenora he served as president of the medical boards in Kenora and Fort William and was attached to the Sixteenth Medium Battery in Kenora until his move to Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba to practice medicine around the time of  his father’s death in 1950.

Livingston Gilbert Gunne died 7 August 1956 in Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba. He was survived by his wife Lillian (who later died in Winnipeg in 1977) and daughter Mrs Daphne (Charles) Wilcox of Fort William, and his two sisters Mrs Dorothea (Carl) Greene and Mrs Kathleen (Burton) Lewis, and mother Alzina, all residing in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Also surviving him were three grandchildren. Along with his parents (mother Alzina died in 1962 in Ocean Springs and has a gravemarker in both Ocean Springs and Kenora), Bert and Lillian are interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora. On his gravemarker is inscribed VD, indicating he had been awarded the Volunteer Decoration medal, and according to his obituary he had also been awarded the Meritorious Medal for his service during the war. His sister Dorthea died in 1966 and sister Kathleen in 1992. Both are interred in the Evergreen Cemetery, Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Daughter Daphne, Charles (bank manager), and  the three children  later moved to Winnipeg.

Bert  is commemorated on the St. Alban’s Pro-Cathedral First World War Roll of Honour.

By Judy Stockham

 

 

« Back To Soldier Biographies