Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthFebruary 17, 1889
Place of BirthKeewatin, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinFather - James Fraser, Keewatin, Ontario
Trade / CallingSteamboat Captain
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number2383956
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentKeewatin, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentOctober 11, 1917
Age at Enlistment28
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathFebruary 10, 1961
Age at Death72
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot9E-35-4

Fraser, Robert Stanley

Robert Stanley was born in Keewatin, Ontario to James and Elizabeth  (Black) Fraser on February 17th, 1889. His brother Alfred had been born in 1885. In the 1891 census, his father James was listed as a bridge carpenter. He continued on  in the wood business, being a foreman at a sawmill in 1901. By this time sisters Luella (1893) and Esther (1897) were born. Esther married William George Craig, and their gravestone can be found  in the Lake of the Woods cemetery.  In 1911, James was working as a road inspector, while  Robert was a boat mate on a ferry. By the time he signed his recruitment papers on the 8th of May in 1918 in Port Arthur, Ontario, he was a steamboat captain.

Robert’s service with the 1st Depot Manitoba Battalion was to be very short as he was discharged two weeks later, reason given was his re-enlistment with the Inland Waterways and Docks Royal Engineers. No further details of his service are known.

Robert returned to Keewatin and was found in the 1921 census living with his parents and sister Esther in Keewatin. His occupation was given as captain of a ferry boat although he had started working for the Canadian Pacific Railway as a brakeman in 1915, retiring in 1954. Robert married Isobel McKelvie Black in 1934 in Keewatin and the couple gave birth to one child, a daughter they named Nancy. Robert was a member of the Keewatin United Church and the Masonic Lodge.

Predeceased by his parents, Robert died on the 10th of February, 1961. He is buried in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora. Isobel died in 1971 and is buried beside him.

by Penny Beal

Fraser-Robert-Stanley-2 Fraser-Robert-Stanley-3


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