Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 10, 1900
Place of BirthKeewatin, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMr Owen Roberts, father, 91 Oak Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingScholar
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number2147378
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion34th Fort Garry Horse
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Cavalry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at Enlistment91 Oak Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentMay 26, 1916
Age at Enlistment16
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJuly 9, 1961
Age at Death61
Buried AtInglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California
PlotSunrise Plot, lot 1495

Roberts, Frederick Owen

Frederick Owen Roberts was born on 10 March 1900 in Keewatin, Ontario, a small town just west of present day Kenora. His father Owen Ellis Roberts, born in 1858 in Bala, Merionethshire in Wales, immigrated to Canada in 1882, arriving in Quebec on 26 June on the Circassian. He settled in Winnipeg where he married Mary Ann McTaggart on 7 March 1887. Born about 1868, sadly Mary Ann died on 7 February 1888, less than a year after the marriage.

Owen then married Charlotte Fox on 3 October 1889 in Winnipeg. Born about 1865 in England, an age appropriate Charlotte Fox was found on the passenger list of the Parisian that arrived in Halifax on 31 March 1888. Owen and Charlotte gave birth to son Charles Ellis in 1890 in Winnipeg, moving to Keewatin after the 1891 census was taken. The next year son George Hugh was born on 18 August. The family stayed in Keewatin for close to ten years. Sadly, Charlotte died on 6 January 1901 and is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora. By the next year Owen and the boys were living in Winnipeg where there was another death in the family, son Charles on 6 December.

Owen remarried on 30 June 1904 in Winnipeg, his bride being Elizabeth Emily Humphries who was born about 1863 in Ontario. Over the years in Winnipeg Owen worked as a shipper/warehouseman for a flour mill.

Along with his brother George, Frederick’s attestation papers indicated that he enlisted with the 34th Fort Garry Horse Service Squadron on 26 May 1916 in Winnipeg. His occupation was given as scholar and also as military trumpeter elsewhere in his service record. His father Owen in Winnipeg was given as as next of kin, and previous military service as with the 34 Fort Garry Horse, Active Militia the same. His service record showed he had been receiving pay from late February of 1915 and his discharge paper gave a different enlistment date of 26 February 1915.

On 13 September 1917, in Winnipeg, Frederick married Doris Hooper. Born on 11 July 1902 in Bexleyheath in the Bexley area of London in England, Doris was the daughter of Harry Willats Hooper and his second wife Mary Harding. A later census record gave her year of immigration as 1905.

At Camp Hughes, Frederick had been promoted to Corporal in June of 1916, reverted to ranks in October of 1917 in Winnipeg. He was also fined pay and confined to barracks for being inattentive to orders. A short time later he was appointed Acting Corporal, promoted to Corporal in February of 1918 and then to Sergeant that December. Frederick was discharged from service on on demobilization on 15 August 1919 in Winnipeg.

The 1921 census listed Frederick and Doris as living in an apartment on Agnes Street in the same building as his brother George and family. Frederick was working as a store keeper for a brewery and the couple had given birth to two children, Marguerite Phyllis in February of 1918 and Richard Owen in March of 1921. From a border crossing record for Doris and a later one for Frederick, it appears that the family moved to the Los Angeles area from 1922 to 1928, back again from Canada in 1930. Petitioning for naturalization in 1931, it was granted in 1936. At the time of the 1940 census Frederick, Doris, Marguerite, and Richard were living on West 64th Street in the Inglewood area of Los Angeles where Frederick was working as a motorman for the city railway. His brother George and family moved to Inglewood in 1947.

Frederick died on 9 July 1961. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Doris, his two married children and their families, and his brother George and family in Inglewood. He was predeceased by his mother Charlotte, brother Charles, stepmother Elizabeth Emily (1937) and father Owen (1938), the latter two in Winnipeg. His brother later died in 1980 and his wife Doris on 7 August 1984 in Van Nuys, California. Along with his brother George and his wife Katherine, Frederick and Doris are interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood.

by Judy Stockham

Roberts-Frederick-Owen-1

Grave marker photo by BJ Waters, findagrave.com


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