Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | January 9, 1896 |
Place of Birth | Toronto, Ontario |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | Mrs Molly Day, mother, Kenora, Ontario |
Trade / Calling | Farmer |
Religion | Church of England |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 198989 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | 49th Battalion |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Infantry |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Enlisted |
Address at Enlistment | Kenora, Ontario |
Date of Enlistment | February 22, 1916 |
Age at Enlistment | 20 |
Theatre of Service | Europe |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | November 30, 1964 |
Age at Death | 69 |
Buried At | Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario |
Plot | 40E-34-3 |
Frederick Alfred ‘Ford’ Day was born on 09 January 1896 in Bracebridge, Muskoka, Ontario. His parents were Frederick Day and Amelia May ‘Molly’ Traviss. They had married on 26 December 1894 in Newmarket, Ontario and Ford was their first child. Other children born to this couple were Ella (b. 1897), Thomas (1898 – 1981), Clarence (1904 – 1999), Patricia (1908 – 1993) and Donald (1912 -1913).
The family moved to Rat Portage (later called Kenora) in the spring of 1898. Frederick Sr. worked for the Rat Portage Lumber Company in Lakeside. In 1905 the family moved to a farm outside of town in the rural area of Jaffray Mellick. Frederick Sr. continued working at the lumber company and walked into town to work until his farm got established. He raised pigs, chickens and cows. An outbreak of hog cholera ended his pig raising and Frederick Sr. went into the dairy business.
Frederick Alfred was educated in Kenora and helped his father on the farm. He enlisted with the 94th Battalion in Kenora on 22 February 1916. After training locally Frederick’s unit left for Port Arthur in May and on 28 June 1916 embarked for England aboard the S.S. Olympic. Upon his arrival in England Frederick was transferred to the 17th Reserve Battalion. He suffered a bout of German measles in August. In January of 1917 Frederick was posted to the 49th Battalion and sent to France. He was hospitalized with influenza in February 1917 and didn’t rejoin his unit until the middle of March. At the beginning of July 1917 the 49th Battalion was in Bivouacs. It relieved the 52nd Battalion in Avion village and the trenches immediately south of the village. The war diary for the 49th Battalion reports that the enemy artillery was active shelling Avion and the Amble trenches. During this shelling Frederick was wounded in his left shoulder. He was admitted to 20 General Hospital in Dannes Camiers with a compound fracture of his left clavicle. This injury required treatment until the end of October 1917 and Frederick was invalided to England. In February of 1918 he returned to France and the 49th Battalion. He served with the battalion for the rest of the year except for a two week period in May when he was hospitalized with tonsillitis. Frederick was granted a leave to the UK in January of 1919 and it was extended until he was processed for return to Canada in March 1919. His official discharge due to demobilization came on 20 March 1919.
‘Ford’ returned to Kenora after the war. He married Yvonne Marie Maguerite Metail on 16 November 1923 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They had several children, but the marriage dissolved. The 1940 voter’s list shows he was a labourer at Wendigo mine. In 1945 he was a mill hand at the paper mill in Kenora and lived in Jaffray Melick. By 1962 his occupation was carpenter and he lived at Rabbit Lake with his second wife Laura. The daughter of Adolphus and Olive (née Atkinson) Vandall, Laura was born in 1921 in Kenora. She was predeceased by her first two husbands, WW1 veterans Henry Joseph Byers (1898-1944) and Arthur Henry Waltenbery (1893-1954).
Frederick Alfred Day died at Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 30 November 1964. He is buried in the military section of Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario.
Photos courtesy of Ford’s family.