Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | February 17, 1889 |
Place of Birth | Keewatin, Ontario |
Country | Canada |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | Father - James Fraser, Keewatin, Ontario |
Trade / Calling | Steamboat Captain |
Religion | Presbyterian |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 2383956 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Battalion | 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Infantry |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Enlisted |
Address at Enlistment | Keewatin, Ontario |
Date of Enlistment | October 11, 1917 |
Age at Enlistment | 28 |
Theatre of Service | Canada |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | February 10, 1961 |
Age at Death | 72 |
Buried At | Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario |
Plot | 9E-35-4 |
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