Archambault, George

George Archambault was born on 16 July 1857 in Ottawa, Ontario. He was the son of Cesaire Archambault and Julie Matté dit Forsier, both from St Roch de l’Achigan in Quebec. The couple married on 10 August 1844 in Ottawa. Children born to the family were Cesaire, Azilda Odile, Hermenegilde, Joseph Emmanuel, Marie Louise Josephine, Eugene Felix, George, Clement, Osias, and Marie Louise Alphonsine. For the 1871 Canada census Cesaire’s occupation was given as charretier (carter) and at the time of his death in 1893 as coachman.

By 1883 George was living in Bay City, Michigan where he and his wife Celina gave birth to their first child, daughter Cora Maud. At the time of her birth George was working as a hotel keeper. It appears that the family went back to Quebec for the birth of son George in 1885 but were living in Bay City when son William Ernest was born in 1889. By the 1901 Canada census the family was living in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario where George had a butcher shop on the corner of Second and Matheson Streets. Daughter Cora married Bertram David Taylor that year, her mother’s surname given as Pommerlane on the marriage record. It appears that George and Celina separated as by the 1911 Canada census Celina was living with Cora and her family in Kenora and then by the 1916 census with them in Winnipeg. According to a Kenora Miner and News article George had left Kenora around 1910 to work in the hotel business in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

George signed his attestation papers in Winnipeg on 9 September 1916 with the 233rd Battalion, giving his birth year as 1872 to appear younger. He gave his next of kin as his wife Celina, present address as his daughter Cora’s where Celina was living with the family. His occupation was given as butcher and his complexion described as chatain (brown).

The 233rd Battalion was organized in March of 1916 and mobilized in Edmonton, Alberta with recruitment amongst French Canadians in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. George served with the battalion in Canada until he was discharged as medically unfit on 28 February 1917 in Edmonton.

By the next year George was back in Kenora, found on the 1921 census running a boarding house on Matheson Street. At the time Celina was living in Winnipeg with her daughter Cora and family. George Jr was married and living in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan while son William was also married and living in England. George eventually moved to Shaunavon and died on 15 July 1928. He is interred in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Shaunavon. Celina had passed away on 23 March 1928 in Montreal.

Further trace of Cora were not found. Son William and his wife separated and he returned to Canada in September of 1928 aboard the Aurania, on his way to his brother in Shaunavon. William had enlisted in 1914 in Valcartier, Quebec and served overseas with the 5th Battalion. He suffered a shrapnel wound in 1915 and was returned to Canada, with war bride Elsie Gertrude Randle, in 1917. William died in 1951 and is interred in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.

by Judy Stockham

newspaper clipping: Kenora Miner and News 27 March 1918
grave marker photograph by Dean Weckman, ID#47729726, findagrave.com

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