Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthNovember 17, 1869
Place of BirthBirmingham, Warwickshire
CountryEngland
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinMrs. Emily Walters (wife), Kenora, Ontario
Trade / CallingRivetter and plate worker
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number199271
Service RecordLink to Service Record
BattalionCanadian Ordnance Corps
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Address at EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentMarch 2, 1916
Age at Enlistment46
Theatre of ServiceGreat Britain
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathMay 10, 1947
Age at Death77
Buried AtRosedale Cemetery, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
Plot7-69-2

Walters, Frederick

Private Frederick Walters was married and the father of eight children when he enlisted in March 1916. His two oldest sons also served during the war and all three of them returned home in 1919.

Fred and his wife Emily (née Golding) had immigrated to Canada in 1908 and settled in the town of Kenora, Ontario. They were originally from Birmingham in the county of Warwickshire, England. They were married in Birmingham in 1895 and their six oldest children were born in England: Owen, Lily, Henry, Frederick, Florence and Phyllis. They came to Canada in the spring of 1908, embarking from Liverpool on 11 March on the Lake Erie and arriving in St. John, New Brunswick twelve days later. Fred’s occupation was listed as mechanic and their destination was Kenora. At the time of the 1911 census Fred was employed as a woodworker in a box factory. Two more children were born in Kenora, Walter James in 1911 and Gwendoline in 1913.

Owen and Henry both enlisted in 1915. Fred signed up the following spring, joining the 94th Battalion in Kenora on 2 March 1916. He was about 46 years old and employed as a rivetter at the time. The 94th Battalion was based in Port Arthur and the Kenora recruits were sent there on 25 May to join the rest of the unit. Fred and his son Henry were both in the 94th and the battalion left for Quebec on 9 June, spending a short time at Valcartier Camp in Quebec before embarking from Halifax on the SS Olympic on 28 June. In England they were absorbed into reserve battalions to be used as reinforcements for other units.

Fred was transferred to the 17th Reserve Battalion on 13 July. In September he was sent to the Canadian Casualty Assembly Centre to be invalided to Canada but he ended up staying in England. His disability was a deformed right thumb, due to an old injury, which made it difficult for him to operate a rifle. From October 1916 to January 1917 he was back with the 17th Reserve Battalion then he was transferred to the Canadian Ordnance Corps. He served with the Ordnance Corps for the next two years. On 11 December 1918, a month after the Armistice, he was transferred to the General Depot and he left for Canada three weeks later. He arrived in St. John, New Brunswick on the SS Scotian on 15 January and he was given two weeks landing leave. He was discharged on demobilization on 11 February in Regina.

When Fred went overseas in 1916 his wife moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where her widowed mother and a sister were living. Fred joined Emily there after the war and they made their home in Moose Jaw. When the 1921 census was taken he was working as a cooper for the railroad. He retired in the late 1930s and passed away on 10 May 1947, at age 77. Emily died three years later and they are both buried in Rosedale Cemetery in Moose Jaw. Their son Walter served in the Second World War and he’s also buried at Rosedale.

By Becky Johnson

94th-1916-03-15 94th-1916-05-27a 94th-1916-06-10 Walters-Fred-9 Walters-Frederick-98 Walters-Frederick-99 Walters-Frederick-100

Obituary for Emily and Card of Thanks courtesy of Moose Jaw Branch, Saskatchewan Genealogical Society.


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