Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJune 10, 1892
Place of BirthKeewatin, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinGeorge Grigg (father), South Westminster P.O., British Columbia
Trade / CallingLogger
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number4080124
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion, BC Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at EnlistmentSouth Westminster P.O., British Columbia
Date of EnlistmentNovember 11, 1917
Age at Enlistment25
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathApril 27, 1966
Age at Death73
Buried AtBayview Cemetery, Bellingham, Washington, U.S.A.

Grigg, John Lemuel

Private John Lemuel Grigg was the son of George Wellington Grigg and Margaret Murphy of New Westminster, British Columbia. George was born on Prince Edward Island and Margaret in Ireland. Margaret had a son David Henry Louis Brown, born in 1883 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She married George in 1886 in Rat Portage (Kenora), Ontario and they had four children: Jessie Edith (1887), George Arthur (1889), John Lemuel (1892) and Herbert Lloyd (1895). John was born on 10 June 1892 in Keewatin, Ontario, a neighbouring town to Kenora. His father’s occupation at the time was milkman.

Sometime after John’s birth the family moved west. Herbert was born in Alberta in February 1895 and Margaret died in Surrey, British Columbia in March 1896, at age 42. She’s buried in Surrey Centre Cemetery. When the 1901 and 1911 censuses were taken George was living in New Westminster, British Columbia with the five children. He was a farmer in 1901 and a labourer in 1911.

The war entered its fourth year in August 1917, the same summer that conscription was introduced in Canada. Single men age 20 to 34 were required to register by the fall. John failed to report and he was called up on 11 November 1917. He had his medical in Vancouver on 20 December and he was assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion, BC Regiment. He was living in South Westminster at the time, his occupation was logger and next of kin was his father. John probably trained with his unit until the following summer. On 19 August 1918 he was discharged in Vancouver and returned to the records of the registrar due to being in medical category E (unfit for service and not likely to become fit within six months). Being in the records of the registrar meant he could be called up again if his services were required.

John’s father passed away on 22 October 1918 and he’s buried with his wife in Surrey Centre Cemetery. John was married in New Westminster on 17 November 1918. His wife, Edith May Teale, was a 17-year-old waitress who lived in New Westminster. She was born in 1901 in Keighley, West Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Samuel Thomas Teale, a farmer, and Jane Smith. John and his wife moved to Port Angeles, Washington where he worked in the pulp and paper industry. They had at least three children, Thelma, Dorothy and Grace.

According to family members, John was married to Lois Winifred Brantzs (née Graves) later in his life. Lois was born in Washington in 1919, the daughter of Samuel and Emma Graves. She married Wallace Reinford Brantzs in December 1947 in Whatcom County, Washington but it appears that Wallace was John Lemuel Grigg. Lois passed away in 1965 in Bellingham, Whatcom County. John followed on 27 April 1966, also in Bellingham and with his name recorded in the death index as Wallace R. Brantzs. Lois and John (Wallace) are buried in Bayview Cemetery in Bellingham.

John’s obituary, as ‘Happy’ Wallace Brantzs Grigg, mentioned that he had several nieces and nephews in Surrey, British Columbia. His brother George Arthur had died in New Westminster in 1953. David Henry passed away in Matsqui in 1967, Jessie Edith (Mrs. Jonathan James Murray) in Burnaby in 1968 and Herbert Lloyd in New Westminster in 1985.

By Becky Johnson


Photos courtesy of Grigg public family tree on ancestry.com.


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