Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthOctober 31, 1885
Place of BirthCatrine, Ayrshire
CountryScotland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinThomas Meikle, Brawfoot, Catrine, Ayrshire, Scotland.
Trade / CallingReceiver
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental NumberNA
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion16th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentSeptember 13, 1914
Age at Enlistment26
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Decorations and MedalsMilitary Cross
Death Details
Date of DeathJuly 31, 1940
Age at Death52
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot37E-33-4

Meikle, Ivie

Ivie Meikle was born on 31 October 1885 in Catrine, Ayrshire, Scotland. A village on the River Ayr, Catrine was constructed around one of the first cotton mills (1787)  in Scotland that was enlarged in 1823 by adding a bleaching works. Ivie was the son of Thomas Meikle and Elizabeth Garvan who had married on 7 August 1868 in nearby Sorn. Thomas was a house painter by trade and Meikle children included James (b abt 1869), Robert (b abt 1871, Thomas (b abt 1875), Ivie, and Margaret (b abt 1889). By the 1901 Scotland census, Ivie was working as a cotton bleacher.

Ivie Meikle was found on the passenger list of the Parisian that arrived in Canada on 18 April 1912, destination given as Winnipeg, occupation as packer. Although his obituary found in the Kenora Miner and News stated that he enlisted in Winnipeg,  Ivie signed his attestation papers in Valcartier, Quebec on 23 September 1914, giving his father Thomas back in Catrine as next of kin and year of birth as 1887. With blue eyes and brown hair, his occupation was  listed as receiver. Organized in Valcartier Camp that September, the 16th Battalion was composed of recruits from Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, and Hamilton. As Lieutenant with the 16th Battalion, Ivie embarked from Quebec on the 30th of September aboard the Andania.

The 16th Battalion arrived in France in February of 1915 and Ivie was granted his first leave of seven days in late October. Suffering a gunshot wound to his left arm on 30 December 1915, he was admitted to the No 23 General Hospital in Etaples. Recovery was to be slow and difficult. In late January of the following year he was invalided to England, admitted to the Bevan Military Hospital in Sandgate. In March he was transferred to the Canadian Convalescent Hospital in Bath for a few days before being admitted to the Granville Canadian Specialty Hospital, Ramsgate.  After a stint at the Canadian Casualty Assembly Centre at Bexhill on the Sea, he was posted to the 14th Reserve Battalion in late April of 1917.

On 16 August 1917, Ivie was struck off strength of the 14th Reserve Battalion on proceeding overseas to the 16th Battalion. In December he was granted a fourteen day Christmas leave. In August of 1918 Ivie suffered his second wound, this time a gunshot wound to the shoulder. He was admitted to the Red Cross Hospital in Rouen and invalided back to England just days later. Recovery this time was quicker, and by the beginning of November Ivie was back in France. For his part during the maneuvers when he was wounded on 2 October 1918, Lieutenant Ivie Meikle was awarded the Military Cross.

With the Armistice and the end of the war, Ivie returned to England in late March of 1919, and sailed for Canada on April 26th. He was discharged from service on 9 May in Ottawa.

Once back in Canada Ivie worked with the Toronto Trust Company in Winnipeg and then with Donner’s Furniture Store.  By 1930 he was living in Kenora, Ontario where he joined the Kenora Branch of the Canadian Legion.

At the time of his death on 31 July 1940 in Kenora,  Ivie was working as assistant to the Indian Agent and as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in connection with his duties in the Indian Department. He was a member of the Canadian Legion, B.E.S.L., a Mason belonging to a Scottish Lodge, and a member of the Presbyterian Church. Ivie Meikle is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora. His grave marker was replaced in 2015. It is unlikely that any members of his birth family immigrated to Canada.

by Judy Stockham

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