Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJune 10, 1898
Place of BirthKenora, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinWilliam James Douglas (father), Edenwold, Saskatchewan
Trade / CallingPainter
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number2684030
Service Record Link to Service Record
BattalionRoyal North West Mounted Police Overseas Draft
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentRNWMP, Regina, Saskatchewan
Date of EnlistmentMay 1, 1918
Age at Enlistment19
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJanuary 11, 1960
Age at Death61
Buried AtMemory Gardens Cemetery, Arlington Heights, Illinois
PlotSection Eternal Light, Lot 349, Block C

Douglas, Robert James

Private Robert James Douglas was born on 10 June 1898 in either Norman or Rat Portage (Kenora), Ontario. His parents, William James Douglas/Douglass and Alice Anderson, were married in 1893 in the parish of St. Andrew’s, Manitoba and Robert was one of at least ten children. For both the 1901 and 1906 censuses the family was living in Selkirk, Manitoba. Around 1909 they moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and William worked as a foreman for the Canadian Pacific Railway. By 1918 they were living in the village of Edenwold, northeast of Regina.

Robert enlisted in Regina on 1 May 1918, signing up with the Royal North West Mounted Police Overseas Draft. He was 19 years old, his occupation was painter and next of kin was his father in Edenwold. Robert was transferred to the 12th Battalion, Canadian Garrison Regiment on 15 May 1918 and discharged from the army in Regina that same day, due to having a medical category less than A2. He had served for two weeks.

Not long after that Robert married and he and his wife, Norah Laurene, settled in Regina. Their first child, Phyllis Laurene, was born in Regina in 1920. Robert’s parents had moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Robert and his wife joined them there in June 1920. He worked as a painter and their son James was born in Wisconsin in 1922. By 1930 they had moved again, this time to Chicago, Illinois. In the early 1940s they settled in Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago.

Robert passed away on 11 January 1960, at age 61, and he’s buried at Memory Gardens Cemetery in Arlington Heights.

By Becky Johnson

Grave marker photograph by ECrouch, findagrave.com.


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