Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 27, 1897
Place of BirthKenora, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinThomas Trick, father, 35 Horace Street, Norwood, Manitoba
Trade / CallingDriver
ReligionMethodist
Service Details
Regimental Number504379
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion2nd Field Company
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Engineers
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at Enlistment35 Horace Street, Norwood, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentMarch 16, 1916
Age at Enlistment19
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details

Trick, James Melville

According to his attestation papers, James Melville Trick was born on 27 March 1897 in Kenora, Ontario (called Rat Portage at the time). He was the adopted son of William Trick and Nellie Jane Ferguson, his birth father from Quebec and birth mother from Ontario. William was born in England while Nellie was from Wales and the couple married on 20 October 1886 in Bowmanville, Durham, Ontario. William was a carpenter and at some point after the 1891 census he and Nellie had moved to Rat Portage where they lived until about 1904 when they moved to Winnipeg. The family lived in the St Boniface/Norwood area of the city, with William finding employment as a carpenter with the Canadian National Railway.

With occupation given as driver and his father William as next of kin, James signed his attestation papers on 16 March 1916 in Winnipeg with the Canadian Engineers Training Depot. Previous military experience was listed as the 34th Fort Garry Horse. On the 1916 census he was listed as training in Ottawa. With the 22nd Draft of the CETD, James embarked from Canada on 26 January 1917, taken on strength at Crowboro on the 7th of February. In mid March James proceeded to the Canadian Engineering Pool in France, joining the 2nd Field Company, Canadian Engineers in mid May. In mid December of 1917 James was granted a fourteen day leave to England, returning to his unit on 11 January 1918. In March James was transferred to the 1 CDPB&T Unit (1st Canadian Depot or Division Permanent Base and Training Unit), taken on strength on the 30th. On 26 November 1918 James was admitted to the 1st Canadian Casualty Clearing Station suffering from influenza, rejoining his unit on the 12th of December. In early January of 1919 he was granted a leave to the UK and while on leave he was admitted to the Berrington War Hospital in Shrewsbury, eventual diagnosis of influenza and rheumatic fever. In late February James was transferred to the Military Convalescent Hospital in Epsom, discharged on the 28th of April. By early June James was on his way back to Canada, embarking from Liverpool aboard the Lapland on the 2nd. James was discharged from service on demobilization on June 13th in Winnipeg.

After the war James returned to Winnipeg, found on the 1921 census living with Thomas and Nellie and working as a carpenter. Nellie died in 1926 and William in 1938, both interred in the Elmwood Cemetery in Winnipeg. At the time of William’s death James was living in Long Beach, California. Further confirmed trace of James was not found.

by Judy Stockham


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