Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Place of BirthNelson House, Manitoba
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMary Moose (mother), Nelson House, Manitoba
Trade / CallingLabourer
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number439548
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion52nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentAugust 6, 1915
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathSeptember 5, 1961
Age at DeathBetween 70 and 80
Buried AtLakeside Cemetery, The Pas, Manitoba

Moose, Frederick

Private Frederick Moose enlisted in August 1915 and served in France and Belgium with the 52nd Battalion and the Canadian Machine Gun Corps. He returned to Canada in March 1919.

According to his attestation paper, Fred was born on 17 September 1891 in Nelson House, Manitoba. He was working in the Kenora area in northwestern Ontario when he enlisted with the 52nd Battalion in the summer of 1915. The 52nd (New Ontario) Battalion was raised earlier that year and the recruits were already training in Port Arthur. In July 250 of them were chosen to go to England with the 2nd reinforcing draft and more volunteers were needed to bring the battalion back up to strength. Two officers returned to Kenora on 2 August to reopen the recruiting depot and Fred enlisted four days later, on 6 August 1915.

Fred was sent to Port Arthur to train with the rest of the volunteers and in early November the battalion headed to the east coast. They embarked from St. John on 23 November on the SS California and arrived in Plymouth about ten days later. After a few more weeks of training the men were sent to France on 20 February 1916. They became part of the 9th Brigade in the new 3rd Canadian Division. That spring the Canadians were in the Ypres salient in Belgium, holding the front line between St. Eloi and Hooge, and the 52nd Battalion moved into the area on 1 April. Two months later they took part in the Battle of Mount Sorrel (2-13 June 1916), their first time in combat, and the unit suffered heavy casualties.

The Somme Offensive started on 1 July and the Canadians began moving south to the Somme area in August. Around that time Fred was sentenced to 42 days Field Punishment No. 1 for drunkenness. On 17 September he was admitted to the divisional rest station for shell shock and it was mid-October when he rejoined his unit. They left the Somme area that month and moved north to the Lens-Arras sector, across from Vimy, where the Canadians would spend the winter. In March 1917 Fred was sentenced to ten days Field Punishment No. 1 for insubordination and obscene language while on parade. On 29 June he was wounded in the leg but remained on duty and in July he had ten days leave in Marseilles.

Between August 1917 and February 1918 Fred spent four months in hospitals in France, getting treatment for vd. In May he was transferred to the 3rd Battalion, Canadian Machine Gun Corps and he served with them for the next four months. That summer the Canadians underwent several weeks of intensive training in open warfare and the final period of the war started with the Battle of Amiens on 8 August. In September Fred was given a two-week leave of absence and in late October he developed an infection in his legs. He was admitted to a hospital in Camiers on 4 November and invalided to England a few days later. He recovered for two months at the 1st Western General Hospital in Liverpool followed by two weeks at the convalescent centre at Epsom. He was discharged to duty on 16 January 1919.

Fred served for another two months in the UK. He embarked for Canada on 29 March on the SS Caronia, arriving in Halifax about a week later. He was discharged on demobilization on 8 April in Port Arthur. Little is known of his life after the war. His addresses included Kenora and Port Arthur and in the late 1920s he was living in the Melfort area in Saskatchewan. Fred passed away on 5 September 1961 at St. Anthony’s Hospital in The Pas, Manitoba. He is buried in Lakeside Cemetery in The Pas (as Private Alfred Moose, 1884-1961).

Fred is commemorated on the Aboriginal Veterans Tribute Honour list here.

By Becky Johnson

52nd-1915-08-04 52nd-1915-12-08 Moose-Frederick-92 Moose-Frederick-93 Moose-Frederick-94


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