Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthNovember 29, 1891
Place of BirthRat Portage (Kenora), Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinAugust Lindberg, Emo PO, Ontario
Trade / CallingRailway conductor
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number2383432
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion52nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at EnlistmentEmo PO, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentJanuary 10, 1918
Age at Enlistment26
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathMarch 31, 1958
Age at Death66
Buried AtBrookside Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
PlotD1-0089-0

Lindberg, George

George Lindberg was born on 29 November 1891 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father August Lindberg was from Sweden while his mother Christina Annie Martensen (Mortensen) was from Denmark. The couple had married on 20 December 1886 and gave birth to their daughter Annie Christina the following year in Denmark. By 1889 they had immigrated to Canada, giving birth to Olaf Martin August in 1889 in Rossland, Ontario. August worked the sections for the Canadian National Railway in northwestern Ontario, eventually becoming section foreman. The 1901 census found the family living in Dryden with children Annie, August, George, and Bertha. Children Alexandra and Benjamin were born in La Seine while William was born in Port Arthur and Edward Oscar in Emo where the family had permanently settled by the time of the 1911 census. Sadly, daughter Annie died in Rainy River in 1913.

With occupation given as railway conductor and his father August in Emo as next of kin, George signed his recruitment papers in Port Arthur on 10 January 1918. He had had his medical examination the previous November in Rainy River. With the 4th Draft of the 1st Battalion Manitoba Regiment, George arrived in England aboard the Tunisian on 19 April 1918.

In August of 1918 George was drafted to the 52nd Battalion that had arrived in France in February of 1916. Landing in France on the 15th, he joined the unit in the field on 19th. Just days later in the vicinity of Boiry just southeast of Amiens, George sustained a gunshot wound to the thigh. Casualties were high during the operations of the 27th/28th, with 25 men reported as killed in action, 138 wounded, 17 missing, and 4 gassed. George was brought to the No 42 Casualty Clearing Station and then moved on to the No 56 General Hospital in Etaples on the 30th. A cable was sent to his father back in Emo in early September. George was invalided to England and admitted to the Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Chatham on 3 September, transferred to the 4th General Hospital at Shorncliffe on the 9th, and then on to the Woodcote Park Convalescent Hospital, Epsom on 5 October, discharged later that month. George spent the remainder of the war in the UK, arriving back in Canada in Halifax aboard the Olympic on 17 January 1919. He was discharged from service on 20 February 1919 in Winnipeg.

George returned to the Emo/Rainy River area and resumed working for the Canadian National Railway, a career that would span 42 years before retirement in 1954. On 18 April 1922, in Rainy River, George married Lily Wood. Born on 26 August 1902 in the Plevna/Wensley area of North Frontenac, Ontario, Lily was the daughter of George Wood and Sarah Selman who had married in Plevna in 1889, George’s occupation given as machinist on the marriage record. The family ended up farming in the Blue/Sleeman area just west of Rainy River where they were living at the time of George and Lily’s marriage. George and Lily gave birth to three known children, Verna, Leslie Gordon, and Doreen.

Shortly after his retirement, George and Lily left Rainy River and moved to Winnipeg, residing on Beaumont Bay with their daughter Doreen Clements and family in Fort Garry. Predeceased by Lily on 12 September 1957, George died in Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg on 31 March 1958. His Veteran Death card listed his daughter Doreen Clements of Beaumont Bay, Fort Garry as next of kin. At the time he was survived by his son Leslie of Winnipeg and daughters Vera Morgan of Sudbury and Doreen Clements of Fort Garry. He was also survived by four grandchildren, brothers William of Emo, Ben of Toronto, and August of Fort Frances and sisters Alexandra Simpson of Emo and Bertha Murray of Detroit, Michigan. George and Lily are interred in Brookside Cemetery, Winnipeg.

Following in his father’s footsteps, George and Lily’s son Leslie served with the Armed Forces in WW2.

by Judy Stockham

obituaries: Winnipeg Free Press


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