Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthFebruary 22, 1891
Place of BirthBrantford, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinThomas Buckboro (father), Rural P.O. #2, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingCook
ReligionBaptist
Service Details
Regimental Number541709
Service Record Link to Service Record
BattalionCanadian Engineers Training Depot
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Engineers
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentJune 3, 1915
Age at Enlistment24
Theatre of ServiceGreat Britain
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJune 19, 1960
Age at Death69
Buried AtForest Lawn Memorial Park, Burnaby, British Columbia

Buckboro, Percy Roy

Sapper Percy Roy Buckboro enlisted in June 1915 and served in Canada and the UK for two years. He was discharged for health reasons in September 1917.

Percy was the oldest son of Thomas Henry Buckboro (Buckborough) and Annie Margaret Burke of Winnipeg, Manitoba. His parents were both born in southern Ontario, Thomas in the village of Kelvin and Margaret in Hartford. Thomas was a farmer and he married his first wife, Otha Gardner, in 1884. She died sixteen months later, at age 21. He married Margaret in 1887 and they settled in the township of Townsend in Norfolk County. They had six children: Edna Otha (1888), Percy Roy (22 February 1891), Norman Blaine (1893), Bonner Mason (1898), Marjorie Frances (1903) and Frank Crawford (1905). In the late 1890s they moved to Brantford, where Thomas worked in a factory for awhile before returning to farming. Around 1913 they decided to head west and settle in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Their daughter Edna had been living there for a few years, working as a stenographer. When the war started the three oldest boys all enlisted, Blaine in 1914 and Bonner and Percy in the summer of 1915. Edna’s husband, Charles Foster Burgess Parker, also served in the war.

Percy was the second of the boys to enlist, signing up in Winnipeg on 3 June 1915. He was working as a cook at the time and he said he belonged to a local militia unit, the 106th Regiment, Winnipeg Light Infantry. He joined the 61st Overseas Battalion, which had just been organized and was being recruited in the Winnipeg area. The men spent the summer at Sewell Camp (later called Camp Hughes), east of Brandon. Percy was assigned to a new unit, the 9th Canadian Mounted Rifles, on 1 September and a month later he was transferred to the Canadian Engineers Training Depot (10th Field Company) in Winnipeg.

After spending the winter training in the city the engineer recruits headed overseas in March 1916, embarking from St. John, New Brunswick on the SS Metagama and arriving in England on 25 March. Percy was transferred to the Canadian Engineers Training Depot and he spent the next eight months at Shorncliffe and Crowborough. In November he became very ill and he was admitted to the Brighton Sanatorium, a hospital for the treatment of contagious diseases. He was diagnosed with influenza and possible spinal meningitis and he was there for about six weeks. After recovering he served with the Canadian Engineers Training Depot at Crowborough until February 1917, when he was transferred to the 14th Reserve Battalion. About a month after joining the battalion Percy suffered a seizure and he was diagnosed with epilepsy. In May he spent some time in Moore Barracks Hospital and it was recommended that he return to Canada for further treatment.

Percy embarked from Liverpool on the hospital ship Araguaya on 11 June and arrived in Halifax on 24 June. He was admitted to a hospital in Quebec for two weeks, followed by a month at the Manitoba Military Convalescent Hospital in Winnipeg. He was discharged from service on 30 September 1917, listed as medically unfit. His brothers Blaine and Bonner and brother-in-law Charles all served overseas and survived the war.

When the 1921 census was taken Percy was living in Winnipeg with his parents and working as a farm labourer. He later lived in Kenora for many years and became a member of the local branch of the Canadian Legion. In 1940 he was employed on Lake of the Woods as a boat builder and in 1949 he was a watchman at St. Mary’s Residential School in Kenora. Around 1955 Percy moved to New Westminster, British Columbia and found work there as a caretaker. He retired in 1957 and passed away at Shaughnessy Veterans Hospital in Vancouver on 19 June 1960, at age 69. He was survived by his brother Blaine of Sidney, B.C. and his sisters Mrs. Edna Parker and Mrs. Marjorie Fulton, both living in the U.S. Percy is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby.

By Becky Johnson

Grave marker photo provided by Mike Melen.

Buckboro-Percy-90 Buckboro-Percy-91 Buckboro-Percy-92


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