Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 27, 1888
Place of BirthLanark, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinO Montgomery, father, 1 Cathedral Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingCustoms Officer
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number1250418
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion3rd Brigade
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Garrison Artillery
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at Enlistment1 Cathedral Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentJune 1, 1917
Age at Enlistment29
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJanuary 11, 1964
Age at Death76
Buried AtSt John's Cathedral Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Montgomery, Clyde McIlquhan

With a family of eight children, five of the Montgomery sons were to enlist during the war.

The Montgomery family had its roots in Lanark County in Ontario. Oswald Montgomery Sr, the son of a farmer and local justice of the peace, was born in 1857 in the township of Drummond. On 11 June 1884, in the nearby township of Bathurst where she was born in 1859, he married Elspeth Rutherford Spalding. After the marriage the couple were to farm in the Drummond area, giving birth to sons Roy Spalding in 1885, Oswald Francis in 1886, and Clyde McIlquhan likely in 1888. By the time of the birth of their next son, Thomas Rothwell, the family had moved to Glenborough in South Cypress in Manitoba where Oswald Sr was a hotel keeper. By 1892 and the birth of son William Earl, the family was living in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario, Oswald once again working as a hotel keeper. A short time later they relocated to Winnipeg where Oswald Sr’s brother Thomas was living and the two brothers went on to own and operate the Winnipeg Hotel on the west side of Main Street. The facility featured a restaurant and bar on the main floor and 60 beds on the upper two floors. In 1901 the brothers enlarged the property by buying the former Dominion Hotel next door. The property was further enlarged in 1903 when they acquired a 100-foot frontage on Fort Street behind their building. On 10 March 1904, the Montgomerys sold the hotel to Maurice Nokes for about $125 000 and they began construction of the Queen’s Hotel at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Notre Dame Avenue which they eventually renovated into the Montgomery Block. Children born to the family in Winnipeg were Samuel Clifford (1894), Allan Ross (1896), and Elsie Kathleen (1898).

Clyde signed his attestation papers in Winnipeg on 1 June 1917 in Winnipeg. His date and place of birth was given as 27 March 1889 in Kenora, Ontario. A birth record was not found for Clyde, with his funeral home record giving the year and place of birth as 1887 in Lanark and his gravemarker as 1888. His occupation was given as Customs Officer and his next of kin as his father Oswald in Winnipeg.

With the 5th Draft of the 76th Depot Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, Clyde arrived in England on 1 November 1917 aboard the Scandinavian. Posted to the 11th Canadian Siege Battery, he embarked for France on 2 April 1918. Upon arrival the unit was absorbed by the 3th Brigade Canadian Garrison Artillery where Clyde was to serve for the duration of the war. He returned to England in early April of 1919 and embarked for Canada aboard the Mauretania on 3 May. Clyde was discharged from service on 13 May 1919 in Winnipeg.

The five Montgomery boys that enlisted were Oswald, Clyde, William, Samuel, and Allan. Allan was the first to enlist, signing his attestation papers at Valcartier on 23 September 1914. He went overseas as a Private with the No 1 Divisional Ammunition Park, later transferred to the 3rd Divisional Supply Column. However Allan suffered from rheumatic fever and chronic rheumatism and was returned to Canada in October of 1916, discharged from service on the 16th in Quebec. William was the next to enlist, signing his attestation papers in Toronto in December of 1914. He went overseas as a Private with the 2nd Divisional Ammunition Sub Park, arriving in France in September of 1915. In January of 1916 he sustained a detonator wound to his left hand and was returned to Canada in September of 1916, discharged from service that December as medically unfit. Samuel enlisted in February of 1915 as a Gunner with the 1st Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery. Commissioned as   Lieutenant and serving latterly with the 7th and 5th Brigades, CFA, he was mentioned in despatches in 1917 and came home with a Military Cross. With the onset of conscription, Oswald was called up for service with the 1st Depot Battalion Manitoba Regiment in January of 1918, discharged on return to Registrar’s Records that May.

By the time of the 1921 census Clyde was married, date and place unknown. He and his wife Berenice, who was born about 1893 in California, were living in Winnipeg where Clyde was working as a customs officer. In 1926 the couple moved to San Francisco where Clyde found work as a real estate salesman. By the time of the 1940 US census Clyde and Berenice had divorced, Clyde’s occupation on the census given as in floor maintenance/stores. On his WW2 registration card Clyde gave his date of birth as 27 March 1889 in Kenora and his contact as Berenice Montgomery at the Hotel Cecil in San Francisco.

Clyde died on 11 January 1964 in San Francisco. At the time of his death he was survived by his siblings Reverend Roy Spalding Montgomery of Winnipeg, William Earl of Headingley, and Elsie Kathleen (John) Johnson of Winnipeg. Clyde was predeceased by his father in 1926, his mother in 1950, both interred in St John’s Anglican Cathedral Cemetery in Winnipeg, his brother Allan in 1951, his brother brother Thomas in 1961, brother Oswald in 1963, all in Winnipeg, and his brother Samuel, likely in British Columbia. William Earl later passed away in 1966, Elsie in 1972 and Roy in 1973, all in Winnipeg. Clyde is interred in St John’s Anglican Cathedral Cemetery in Winnipeg.

By Judy Stockham

gravemarker photo: courtesy of Roslein on findagrave.com

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