Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthAugust 22, 1892
Place of BirthSpeymouth or Elgin, Morayshire
CountryScotland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs. Annie Dunbar (mother), Beauly, Inverness, Scotland
Trade / CallingLabourer
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number198616
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion94th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentDecember 28, 1915
Age at Enlistment24
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathNovember 22, 1967
Age at Death75
Buried AtCluny Hill Cemetery, Forres, Moray, Scotland

Dunbar, Findlay

Private Findlay Dunbar was living in Kenora, Ontario when he enlisted in 1915. According to his service file, he was born on 23 August 1891 in Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland. His birth, however, was registered as 22 August 1892 in Speymouth, a village just east of Elgin. His parents were John Dunbar, a cattleman, and Annie McNeill. John and Annie were married in 1884 and they had at least six children: Catherine, William, John, Elspet (Elsie), Findlay and James Alexander.

Findlay signed up in Kenora on 28 December 1915, joining the 94th Battalion. His occupation was labourer and next of kin was his mother Annie Dunbar in Beauly, Inverness, Scotland. The 94th Battalion was based in Port Arthur and recruited in towns throughout northwestern Ontario. Over the winter the Kenora recruits trained locally, which included indoor physical exercises, outdoor route marches and lectures. In May they were sent to Port Arthur to join the rest of the battalion. Findlay, however, had been discharged two months earlier, on 17 March 1916, due to being of unsound mind.

Little else is known of Findlay’s life. When the next western Canadian census was taken in June 1916 a Finlay Dunbar, possibly the same man, was working as a farm labourer in the RM of Macdonald, Manitoba. He was 25 years old, born in Scotland with his year of immigration listed as 1910. He was living with and employed by Herbert Young, a farmer, and his wife.

At some point Findlay returned to Scotland. His father passed away in 1922 and his mother in 1940. His brother Sergeant William Dunbar had been killed in action in France in December 1914, while serving with the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders. William is commemorated on Le Touret Memorial in France.

Findlay passed away on 22 November 1967, age 75. He is buried in Cluny Hill Cemetery in Forres, Moray, Scotland along with his parents and his sisters Elsie (1891-1964) and Catherine (1886-1967).

By Becky Johnson

94th-1916-01-05

Grave marker photograph by Dog Rose, ID# 50273624, findagrave.com.


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