Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 9, 1883
Place of BirthWinnipeg, Manitoba
CountryCanada
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinMrs. Laura May Hughes (wife), Suite 8 Sharpe Block, Winnipeg
Trade / CallingGrocery Clerk
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number2381984
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at EnlistmentSuite 8, Sharpe Block, Winnipeg
Date of EnlistmentApril 17, 1918
Age at Enlistment35
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathAugust 26, 1965
Age at Death82
Buried AtNew Haven Cemetery, RM of Pembina, Manitoba
Plot6E3

Hughes, Hugh Gladstone

Corporal Hugh Gladstone Hughes was the oldest son of Hugh Hughes and Sarah Thompson. His father was born in Liverpool, England and his mother was from Wales. Hugh Gladstone was born on 9 March 1883 in Winnipeg and he was followed by a sister, Winnifred Jane, and a brother, John Llewellyn (Jack). Shortly after Jack was born the family moved to Rat Portage (now called Kenora), in northwestern Ontario. Hugh Sr. worked as a railway clerk and the fourth and youngest child, Frederick, was born in Rat Portage in 1891. Sadly, Hugh Sr. died in Rat Portage in January 1900. When the census was taken the following year Sarah and the four children were still living in Rat Portage and Hugh was working as a clerk for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

By 1911 Hugh had moved back to Winnipeg and he was living with Winnifred, Jack and their mother. The war started in August 1914, when he was 31, and conscription was introduced in Canada three years later. Single men born in 1883 or later were required to register by November 1917. Hugh had his medical in Winnipeg on 25 September and he got married three weeks later, on 16 October. His wife, Laura May Barkwell, was the daughter of John Barkwell and Eliza Dean. She was born in 1890 in Peel Township, Wellington County, Ontario.

Hugh was called up for service on 17 April 1918 and assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment. His occupation was grocery clerk and next of kin was his wife Laura. He was 35 years old and according to his medical exam he was 5’3′ tall and just 100 lb., with brown hair and blue eyes. Hugh served in Winnipeg for the next eight months. Tragedy hit the family in October when his mother, brother Frederick and sister Winnifred all died of influenza within ten days of each other. Hugh’s surviving brother Jack ( John Llewellyn) had been called up in May and he was in a military hospital in Moose Jaw at the time. He returned home for the family funerals. At the end of December a board recommended that Hugh be discharged from service due to being a married man and his discharge became effective on 3 December.

When the 1921 census was taken Hugh and Laura were living on Graham Avenue in Winnipeg, with his occupation listed as clerk and hers as bookkeeper. Their only child, John Lloyd (Jack), was born in June 1922. Hugh left the Hudson’s Bay Company after 25 years and started his own grocery business in St. Vital. His son Jack joined the Royal Canadian Navy and served with them during the Second World War. After the war he attended university, studying agriculture. Hugh left the grocery business in 1948 and together with his son he bought a farm in the Pembina Hills near Miami, Manitoba. They farmed there until about 1964.

Hugh was a member of the Canadian Legion, Miami Branch No. 88 and a life member of the Anglican Church. He passed away at the Manitou District Hospital on 26 August 1965, at age 82. Laura had died in January 1961 and they are both buried at New Haven Cemetery in the RM of Pembina. After leaving the farm Jack and his wife lived in Kenora for awhile then settled in Winnipeg, where he had a career with the Department of Agriculture and the Commissionaires. He died in 2009 and he’s buried in the family plot at New Haven.

By Becky Johnson

Grave marker photograph provided by Joyce & Brittany Waldner, ID #50723782, findagrave.com.


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