Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthSeptember 5, 1893
Place of BirthSelo, Borsky
CountryRussia
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinMarina Kavaluck, wife, Selo, Borsky, Russia
Trade / CallingLabourer
ReligionOther - See Notes
Service Details
Regimental Number793643
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion132nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentDoaktown, New Brunswick
Date of EnlistmentJanuary 13, 1916
Age at Enlistment22
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Age at Death45
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot36E-34-2

Kofalick, Paul

Paul Kofalick was working as a labourer in Doaktown, New Brunswick when he signed his attestation papers in Chatham on 13 January 1916. Located in central New Brunswick, at the time Doaktown, as it is today, was a centre for the lumbering industry. A Russian immigrant, Paul gave his date and place of birth as 5 September 1893 in ‘Selo, Borsky, Russia’. With different spellings of his name in his record, it is not known what his name was in Russia. His next of kin was given as his wife Marina back in Russia, his father’s forename name given as Onersha, and his religion as Greek Catholic.

With recruitment in Northumberland County and the North Shore, the 132nd Battalion had been organized in November of 1915 and mobilized at Chatham. As a Private with the 132nd Battalion, Paul embarked from Halifax for overseas aboard the  Corsican on 26 October 1916. Once in England Paul was transferred to the 87th Battalion, taken on strength in the field on the 6th of December. Later than month he was sent on a two week course at a 4th Divisional School. The following March he was admitted to the No 7 General Hospital in St Omers with a case of the mumps. He was discharged to base details in early April. In September Paul was attached to the T Line Party, and then attached to the 4th CD Wing, CCRC (Russian) in March of 1918. He had been granted a two week leave in December of 1917. In April of 1918 Paul was transferred to the 71st Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps (No 12 District Bordeaux Group) that had arrived in France the previous August.

‘The Canadian Forestry Corps provided lumber for the Allied war effort by cutting and preparing timber in the United Kingdom and on the continent of Europe in the First World War. Forestry units also cleared terrain for the construction of installations such as airfields and runway, prepared railway ties, as well as lumber for the creation of barracks, road surfaces, ammunition crates, trench construction, etc. These units were sometimes called on in the First World War to perform as infantry.’ (canadiansoldiers.com)

Paul was hospitalized for pneumonia in early October of 1918, returning to duty later that month. He was granted a second leave on the 23rd of November, two weeks to the UK. In mid April of 1919 he returned to England and embarked for Canada aboard the  Celtic on the 7th of May. Upon his discharge later that month, Paul’s intended residence was given as Regina, Saskatchewan.

At some point Paul moved to northwestern Ontario were he found work with Camp #28 of the Keewatin Lumber Company. Paul likely died in late December of 1938 or early January of 1939. He was interred in a military plot in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora on January 9th. The cross on his original grave site gives the year of death as 1939 while the stone marker has the year as 1938. His gravemarker was replaced in 2015, giving the year of death as 1938.

by Judy Stockham

Kofalick-Paul-1


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