Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJune 16, 1883
Place of BirthDublin
CountryIreland
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinWife - Mrs. Annie McMullan, Kenora, Ontario
Trade / CallingStationary Engineer
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number198819
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion94th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentJanuary 21, 1916
Age at Enlistment32
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details

McMullan, Frank

According to his attestation papers, Francis McMullan was born in Dublin Ireland on June 16, 1883. In 1903 he married Annie Johnson, daughter of William Johnson and Marion Rennie, in London, England. Daughter Marion Annie was born in December 1904 and son Herbert in March 1907. The family immigrated to Canada on the Empress of Britain in December 1907 landing in St. John, New Brunswick. Although their stated destination was Winnipeg, Manitoba, the family settled in Kenora, Ontario where son John William (aka Jack) was born in 1909, daughter Catherine (aka Kathleen, Kay) in 1910, and son Frank (Francis Dugald) in 1913. The 1911 Canadian census shows the family living in the west ward of Kenora, Ontario (a suburb called Norman) and Frank working as a laborer at a saw mill.

When Frank Sr. joined the army he was working as a stationary engineer in a lumber mill in Keewatin, Ontario. He joined the 94th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on January 21, 1916 when he was 32. In his military attestation he was described as 5′ 9 1/2 ‘ in height with clear complexion, gray eyes and brown hair and sporting ‘a deflection of the nose to the left from a hockey incident’. He was still living in Norman.

Francis, or Frank as he was known, sailed on the SS Olympic from Halifax on June 28, 1916 and arrived in Liverpool on July 6th. He was transferred to the 17th Reserve Battalion and went to East Sandling camp in Kent for training. On August 24th he was sent to France and attached to the 43rd Infantry Battalion, the Queens Own Cameron Highlanders.

On October 2nd Frank had a hemorrhoid operation at a field hospital in Rouen. He was returned to England, attached to the Canadian Casualty Assembly Centre in Shoreham and admitted to the 2nd Western General Hospital in Manchester. He was treated for extreme pain there and in January, 1917, was transferred to a convalescent hospital in Woodcote, Epsom.

On June 17, 1917 he returned to service in France with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders and his unit was involved in a number of operations near Avion. On November 13th he took a shrapnel wound to the left arm and was pulled out of service. He remained in France to convalesce and in December he was assigned to the Canadian Labour Pool.

While there he was involved in an incident and taken into military custody on January 14, 1918, charged with the theft of 200 French francs and a one pound English note from a local resident, Mme Ve Hostier.   He was tried and convicted in a military court and sentenced to two years of hard labour. He began serving his sentence in a military prison (Vedroux les Attaques) on March 23rd of that year.

On November 11, 1918 the Armistice was signed and on November 18th Frank’s charge was commuted to the six months served with the balance suspended. On April 19, 1919 the unexpired portion of his sentence was remitted.

On May 3, 1919 he departed from Liverpool on the HMT Royal George, a Cunard line cruise ship nicknamed ‘Rolling George’. He landed in Halifax on May 14th and on May 17th he was discharged from the military in Port Arthur, Ontario. He was served with War service Class A honours and he headed for his home in Norman, Ontario. He was 35 years of age.

The 1921 census shows Frank and his children living in the Claremont Apartments on Burnell Street in Winnipeg and Frank is listed as a widower. Annie’s parents, William and Marion Johnson had placed an ad in the Winnipeg Free Press looking for information on the whereabouts of their daughter or her children in 1920. Little is known about Frank McMullan after this. However, we know that his daughter Marion Annie married Murray Ennis and lived in Winnipeg until her death in 2006; son Herbert and his wife Marjorie had seven children and he was buried in Glen Eden Cemetery in Winnipeg in 1975;   son ‘Jack’ spent time in Yellowknife but was buried in Brookside Cemetery in Winnipeg in 1982; daughter Kay married George Empey and moved to Victoria where she passed away in 1993; and youngest son Frank, who joined the RCAF retiring in 1958 as a Flying Officer, died in 1971 in Winnipeg.

By Don Cameron