Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthOctober 15, 1895
Place of BirthVermilion Bay, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinSamuel Lutz, father, Kenora, Ontario
Trade / CallingJeweller
ReligionBaptist
Service Details
Regimental Number529595
Service Record Link to Service Record
BattalionNo 10 Canadian Field Ambulance
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Army Medical Corps
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentAugust 30, 1915
Age at Enlistment19
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathAugust 24, 1973
Age at Death78
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot57E-41-3

Lutz, George Barrett

George Barrett Lutz was born on 15 October 1895 in Vermilion Bay, Ontario, a village located about 100 kilometres east of Kenora in northwestern Ontario. His father Samuel Busby Lutz was from the Moncton area of New Brunswick where the family farmed. His mother Lilly Ann Killam was also from New Brunswick, her family living in nearby Salisbury where her father was a millwright. Samuel had moved to northwestern Ontario in late 1893 or early 1894  as he had secured a job with the Canadian Pacific Railway, starting as a switchman, then brakeman, and finally a passenger train conductor at the time of his retirement in 1934. Samuel and Lilly married in 1894 in Vermilion Bay but had relocated to Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) by 1897. Children born to the family were Lena Maude (1894-1909), George, Marion Lena (1897), Thelma M (July – August 1900), Milford Lorne (1902), Rhea Beryl (1903), Lily Ann (1905-1906),  and a male infant that was born in 1908 but failed to thrive.

At age 19 and with occupation given as jeweller, George signed his attestation papers with the A Section No 1 Field Ambulance on 30 August 1915 in Kenora. With what was called at the time the Royal Army Medical Corps, he trained in Winnipeg for a number of months, joining the No 10 Canadian Field Ambulance. In late February of 1916 a train passed through Kenora on its way east on the first leg of the journey to France. On board was  Private George Lutz  along with a number of other local men. The No 10 Canadian Field Ambulance left Saint John, New Brunswick on 2 March 1916 aboard the Scandinavian, arriving in England ten days later, strength 9 officers, 180 other ranks. By early April the unit was in France.

Field ambulances were mobile units that treated wounded and/or ill personnel that could be returned to their units, and removed casualties from dressing stations and regimental aid posts to casualty clearing stations for further treatment. They were usually located close to the front lines/combat zones.  The No 10 Field Ambulance served with the 3rd Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.

Upon arrival in France, George was posted to the 1st Army Troops Company, Canadian Engineers for a short time, rejoining the No 10 Field Ambulance in early August of 1916. Over the course of his service George was granted three leaves, one to Paris in late July of 1917, a fourteen day leave to Nice in mid October of 1918, and an eight day leave in mid February of 1919 once the unit was back in England. He was granted a Good Conduct Badge on 14 June 1918. He embarked from Liverpool on 12 March 1919 aboard the Baltic with final discharge on the 24th.

After the war George returned to Kenora and resumed working as a watchmaker. He later joined the Ontario-Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company as an instrument man where he remained until his retirement in 1955 due to ill health. On 6 February 1932, in Kenora, George married Ida Wilhelmina Johnson. Born in 1897 in the nearby village of Norman, Ida was daughter of Scandinavian immigrants Sven and Josephine (née Carlson) Johnson. The 1921 census found Ida living with her parents in  Kenora and working as a stenographer for the Maple Leaf Milling Company. Her father, also employed by the mill, was a millwright. Ida’s brother Albin was also a veteran of the war.  George and Ida gave birth to one child, a son Jack Barrett. George was a member of Knox United Church and the Kenora Branch of the Canadian Legion.

Predeceased by  his sisters Thelma in 1900, Lily Ann in 1906 and Lena Maude in 1909, his mother Lilly in 1939, his father Samuel in 1945,  and his wife Ida in 1952, all in Kenora, George died on 24 August 1973 in the Pinecrest Home for the Aged in Kenora. At the time of his death he was survived by his son Jack in Troy, Michigan, sisters Marion Pinch of Toronto and Rhea Sheridan of White Rock, British Columbia, his brother Milford of Moncton, New Brunswick, as well as three grandchildren. Along with Ida,  George is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora.

by Judy Stockham

 


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