Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthOctober 25, 1897
Place of BirthWorcester, Worcestershire
CountryEngland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinWalter Rushton, father, Keewatin, Ontario
Trade / CallingMiller
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number1250376
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion43rd Battery
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Field Artillery
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentKeewatin, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentMay 21, 1917
Age at Enlistment19
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathAugust 24, 1953
Age at Death56
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
PlotB-14-6

Rushton, Horace Walter

Horace Walter Rushton was born on 25  October 1897 in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. His father Walter and mother Letitia (née Booth) Rushton had married in Worcester in 1894. While in England Walter’s occupation on the censuses was given as ‘China Printer Earth’. There were four children in the Rushton family, Ernest (b 1895), Percy Frank  (b 1896), Horace Walter (b 1897) and Violet May (b 1901).

Walter Rushton immigrated to Canada in February of 1903 and found employment with the Lake of the Woods Milling Company in Keewatin, Ontario. Letitia and the children arrived in May of 1904 aboard the Ionion and by the 1911 census the family was living on Goat Road in Keewatin. Walter  was listed as working as a packer at the mill, Ernest’s  occupation was given as  printer and Percy was working at the Box Factory.

Although living in Keewatin,  Horace and his brother  Percy enlisted in Winnipeg on 21 May 1917, occupation for both  given as miller. With the 76th Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, the brothers were sent to training camp in Petawawa by the end of the month. The 76th Overseas Depot Battery was organized in July of 1916 and served as an artillery reinforcement depot for Military District No 10 (Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario). As needed, drafts of men were sent to the UK. Horace and Percy embarked from St John, New Brunswick on 19 December 1917 aboard the Missanabie, arriving in Glasgow on the 31st.

On 1 January 1918 Horace was taken on strength at Witley in England. Later that month he was admitted to the Military Isolation Ward at Aldershott where he was to stay for close to three weeks as he had the mumps.  Along with Percy he proceeded to France in April of 1918. After spending time at the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp, Horace, along with his  brother Percy,  was attached to the 43rd Battery, Canadian Field Artillery. In early January of 1919 he was granted a two week leave and returned to England in March as the first step of returning home.

Driver Horace Rushton returned to Canada 5 April 1919 aboard the Northland. On 26 June 1923 he married Marie Augustine Lajeunesse, daughter of Antoine and Olive (née Lacombe) Lajeunesse of Kenora. The couple went on to have  four children, Marie Stella that died as a toddler in 1926, baby Leonard who died in 1935, Gerald and Marie. With Horace’s occupation that of a printer, over the years the family lived in Melita, Manitoba and Almeda, Saskatchewan before returning to Kenora in 1947 when Horace began working for the Kenora Miner and News as a linotype operator.

Predeceased by his mother Letitia in 1929 and his father Walter in 1939, both in Kenora, Horace Walter Rushton died on 24 August 1953 and is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora. His wife Marie died in 1981 and is interred along side him.

Along with his brothers Ernest and Percy,  Horace’s name is found on the Keewatin St James Anglican Church WW1 Roll of Honour as a member of the church who had enlisted. Horace and Percy were honoured at a demonstration held by the municipality of Keewatin in August of 1919 and both of their names appear on the Lake of the Woods Milling Company Roll of Honour, the Municipality of Keewatin For King and Country plaque, and on the Town of Keewatin Roll of Honour.

by Judy Stockham

 


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