Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMay 5, 1892
Place of BirthLitchfield Township, Pontiac, Quebec
CountryCanada
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinStella Proudlock, wife, RMD #1, Braeside, Ontario
Trade / CallingMechanical Engineer
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number505018
Service Record Link to Service Record
BattalionCanadian Engineers Training Depot
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Engineers
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentApril 23, 1916
Age at Enlistment24
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathAugust 4, 1965
Age at Death73
Buried AtKerrobert Cemetery, Kerrobert, Saskatchewan

Proudlock, Duncan McDougall

Duncan MacDougall Proudlock was born on 5 May 1892 in the Township of Litchfield, Pontiac, Quebec, today known as Campbell’s Bay. His father farmer Thomas Proudlock, born in about 1837, had first been married to Mary Moorhead. The couple gave birth to three children, Harral Hamilton, Annie, and Margaret Jane before Mary passed away. According to a family tree, Thomas married Nancy Ann Nesbitt Stevenson on 3 September 1873 in Litchfield. Thomas and Nancy gave birth to children Marion (1874), Thomas (1876), Margaret Ann (1877), Elizabeth (Betsy) (1879), Mary (1881), Richard (1882), John (1884), Andrew (1885), Jane (1888), Agnes (1890), and Duncan. Thomas died in 1902, with Nancy, John, Andrew, Agnes, and Duncan relocating to the Kerrobert, Saskatchewan area in 1910 where they each applied for and received land grants.

Duncan enlisted as a Sapper with the Canadian Engineers Training Depot on 23 May 1916 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His half brother Harral and brother Thomas had moved to Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario, both living there for the 1901 and 1911 censuses. At the time of enlistment, Duncan was living in Kenora and working as a mechanical engineer. While on leave Duncan returned to Kerrobert where he married Stella Warin. Born on 7 October 1896 in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, England, Stella was the daughter of John Warin and Annie Marie Bradley. Along with her mother and some of her siblings, she arrived in Montreal aboard the Kensington on 7 October 1906. Although the passenger list indicated that they were headed for Melita, Manitoba, Stella ended up in Kerrobert where she worked as a telephone operator.

While in training, Duncan’s service was cut short as he had a goitre on his neck dating back to 1901 and had had inflammatory rheumatism in 1910, both affecting his ability to train. He was discharged from service as medically unfit on 22 June 1916 in Ottawa. His character and conduct while in service were described as very good.

Duncan’s half brother Harral enlisted with the 63rd Battalion in Edmonton, Alberta on 16 October 1915, discharged from service as medically unfit on 4 April 1916. His nephew Thomas Hamilton Proudlock enlisted in Winnipeg in March of 1915 and served overseas with the 28th Battalion and other units. He was discharged from service in 1917 in Winnipeg as medically unfit. Thomas attested again in 1919, discharged a few months later as medically unfit. Duncan’s nephew Marvel Proudlock, age 14, enlisted on 2 August 1917 in Winnipeg with the Canadian Army Service Corps. He was discharged as a minor on 10 October 1917.

Stella’s brother Harold enlisted in July of 1915 in Saskatoon, joining the  Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in the field that December. He was reported as killed in action on 12 April 1916 at Hooge and is interred in  Menin Road South Military Cemetery, Ieper, Belgium.

The 1921 census found Duncan and Stella living in Kerrobert along with children Muriel Stella (b 1917), Thomas Harold (b 1918), and Duncan MacDougall Jr (b 1919). They would later give birth to daughter Marion June (b 1926). After the war Duncan had gone east where he was in the first graduating class of Toronto College of Chiropractors (1920), and in 1922 he went to Chicago to take a month long chiropractor course. In 1931 the family moved to Downe, Saskatchewan where Duncan worked as the elevator agent for Saskatchewan Pool and around 1936 they moved to Coleville. As supported by Voters lists, it appears that Duncan and Stella separated, with Duncan moving to Kindersley where he maintained a chiropractic practice while Stella moved to Saskatoon.

Both of Duncan and Stella’s sons served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in WW2. Pilot Officer Thomas Harold Proudlock was reported as killed in action on 26 March 1944, interred in the Reichwald Forest Cemetery in Germany. He is commemorated on his grandmother’s grave marker in the Kerrobert Cemetery.

Duncan died on 4 August 1965 in Kindersley. He was predeceased by his mother Nancy (1931), and siblings Richard in 1902 in Campbell’s Bay, Jane in 1905 in Quebec, Margaret Ann (Robert) Manwell in 1945 in Sudbury, Betsy (Alexander) Stevenson in 1945 in Arnprior, Marion (William) Stevenson in 1948 in Renfrew, Thomas (Mary Ann Williams) in 1953 in Kenora, and Andrew (Esther Sutton) in 1958 in Detroit. Siblings John died in 1964 in Campbell’s Bay, Agnes in 1970 in Saskatoon and Mary (Thomas) Jones in 1974 in Los Angeles.

Stella later died on 23 December 1989 in Saskatoon. At the time of her death she was survived by her son Dr Duncan (Phyllis) Proudlock, chiropractor in Edmonton, daughters Muriel (Orville) Grindeland of Great Falls, Montana and Marion (David) MacDonald of Palmerston, Ontario, ten grandchildren, twenty-two great grandchildren, as well as two sisters.

Along with his mother, brothers John and Andrew, and son Duncan, Duncan is interred in the Kerrobert Cemetery. Stella is interred in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Saskatoon.

By Judy Stockham

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