Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthOctober 14, 1897
Place of BirthGlasgow, Scotland
CountryScotland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinPeter MacPherson, father, Keewatin PO, Ontario
Trade / CallingFireman
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number260449
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion77th Depot Battery
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Field Artillery
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at EnlistmentFirehall, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
Date of EnlistmentMay 9, 1918
Age at Enlistment20
Theatre of ServiceGreat Britain
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJune 3, 1979
Age at Death81

MacPherson, Peter

Peter MacPherson was born on 14 October 1897 in the district of Hutchesontown in Glasgow, Scotland. His father Peter MacPherson, a shoemaker, was born in 1877 in Stair, Ayrshire while his mother Elizabeth McLintock was born in 1862 in Inch, Wigtown. As a child Elizabeth’s family’s surname was McClinton, changed to McLintock when the family moved to Glasgow after 1881. Elizabeth had married Joseph Brown in 1882 in Maybole, Ayrshire, the couple giving birth to son William the next year. Joseph died in 1893, with Peter and Elizabeth marrying on 4 December 1896 in Hutchesontown in Glasgow. Moving to Govan in Glasgow, daughters Agnes were born in 1900 and Elizabeth in 1904. Sadly Elizabeth only lived for a few months.

Peter Sr immigrated to Canada in 1904, arriving in Halifax on the Numidian on 8 April. The passenger manifest listed him as a farmer born in Ayrshire on his way to Toronto. However Peter ended up in the town of Keewatin near Kenora in northwestern Ontario where he found work as a packer at the local flour mill. Elizabeth and the two children arrived in Canada on the  Mongolian on 31 May 1907, on their way to Keewatin. By the time of the 1911 census for Keewatin Elizabeth’s brother Andrew was also living with the family and working at the flour mill.

With the onset of conscription in the latter part of the war, Peter had his medical examination in September 1917 in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan where he was living and working as a fireman. His paternal grandparents Peter and Helen MacPherson had immigrated to Canada in the spring of 1907, settling in Prince Albert. Peter was called up for service on 9 May 1918 in Regina and assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion Saskatchewan Regiment. He gave his father Peter in Keewatin as next of kin.

With the 146th Draft of the 77th Depot Battery of the Canadian Field Artillery, Peter arrived in England aboard the Themistocles on 25 May 1918. Upon arrival he was taken on strength with the Reserve Brigade, CFA and placed in the Segregation Camp at Rhyl. With the end of the war Peter arrived back in Canada on the Olympic on 17 January 1919 and was discharged from service on 11 February 1919 in Regina, rank of Gunner.

Elizabeth’s son William had enlisted during the war, serving overseas with the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), 2nd Battalion. He was reported as killed in action on 25 March 1918 and is interred in the Ham British Cemetery, Muille-Villette in Ham, Department de la Somme, Picardie in France.

On 5 June 1919, in Prince Albert, Peter married Mary Krall (Krawl). Born on 7 January 1900 in Budapest, Hungary, Mary was the daughter of Adam Krall and Anna Varga. Along with her mother and siblings, Mary had arrived in New York on the Pretoria on 21 February 1909, on their way to Adam in Prince Albert. A short time after the marriage Peter and Mary moved to Keewatin where Peter found work as a packer at the flour mill, eventually becoming a foreman on the packing floor. The couple gave birth to three children, Peter Bruce (1920), Douglas Haig (1922), and Theresa Kathleen (1924). Peter was a member of St Andrew’s United Church in Keewatin and was a past president of the Keewatin Branch of the Canadian Legion.

Peter died on 3 June 1979 in the Lake of the Woods District Hospital in Kenora. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Mary, sons Peter (Toronto) and Douglas (Mackenzie, BC), daughter Theresa (John) Perkarchuk (Kenora), and sister Agnes (Gerald) West of Winnipeg. He was also survived by six grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Peter was predeceased by his mother Elizabeth in 1937 and father Peter in 1958, both interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora. Peter’s wife Mary died on 7 February 1983 in the Kenora hospital. Disposition for both was by cremation.

By Judy Stockham

Photographs of Peter and Mary as found on Alanna Sanderson’s public family tree on ancestry.ca.


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