Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Place of BirthKenora, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinJoe McDougall, brother, c/o W Weston, Bible House, Alexander Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingSteam Engineer
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number1250555
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion4th Brigade
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Field Artillery
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentRegina, Saskatchewan
Date of EnlistmentJune 17, 1916
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathNovember 13, 1978
Age at Death86
Buried AtMountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, British Columbia
PlotABRAY/*/05/*/1852

McDougall, Daniel

By all accounts Daniel McDougall was born in Kenora, Ontario. However a birth record was not found and differing birth dates were given in various documents: 12 June 1892 (attestation), 12 May 1896 (elsewhere in his service record), 1896 (1923 border crossing), 12 May 1898 (1945 border crossing), 12 May 1899 (British Columbia death record), and 1899 (grave marker). His father was Peter McDougall but the name of his mother is unknown. According to Daniel’s service record she had died before his enlistment. At some point the family unit failed, likely with his mother’s death, and Daniel and his brother Joe were taken into care by Children’s Aid in Winnipeg. A notation in his record indicated that Daniel had attended an industrial school.

Daniel enlisted on 17 June 1916 in Regina, joining the 77th Depot Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. He had been living in Regina and working as a steam engineer. He gave his brother Joe, care of W Weston at Bible House on Alexander Avenue in Winnipeg, as next of kin.

Daniel arrived in England aboard the Grampian on 24 August 1916. By November he was in France, attached to the 2nd Divisional Ammunition Company. Later that month he was posted to the 7th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery and then transferred to the 4th Brigade, CFA in March of 1917, rank of Gunner. Daniel was granted a leave in September and a second one in late November of 1918. In late February of 1919 after being apprehended, Daniel was tried and convicted of being away without leave for close to a month. He was sentenced to 60 days Field Punishment No 2 and forfeited 10 days pay. Suffering from influenza, Daniel was admitted to the No 83 General Hospital in Boulogne on 12 March 1919 and was transferred to the No 8 Stationary Hospital in Wimereux a few days later. However all was not well with Daniel and he spent the next two months hospitalized for melancholia (depression). He had been threatening to poison himself, thinking he had a reoccurrence of tapeworms from a few years ago. He said he had been wounded twice and gassed although there is no evidence of it in his file. Although his state of mind improved, it was decided that Daniel be invalided to Canada that May. He arrived in Portland, Oregon aboard the Araguaya on the 30th and was hospitalized into July. Daniel, rank of Corporal, was discharged from service as medically unfit on 21 July 1919 in Regina. His discharge certificate noted scars from gunshot wounds to his leg and head.

Little is known about Daniel’s life after the war. According to a 1923 border crossing into the United States he had been living in Saskatoon and was on his way to Portland, Oregon. At the time his occupation was given as electrician and his father Peter in Port Rowan, Ontario as next of kin. A second border crossing was found for 1945 where Daniel was in transit from Trail, British Columbia to Vancouver, occupation given as machinist. Next of kin was given as a friend from Trail.

Daniel died on 13 November 1978 in the Vancouver General Hospital. He had been living in an apartment on Burnaby Street, with his occupation for most of his working life given on his death record as general labourer. At some point he may have married as he was listed as widower. Daniel is interred in Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver.

By Judy Stockham

Daniel’s grave marker photograph taken by cemetery staff and used with permission.


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