Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthDecember 24, 1893
Place of BirthKeewatin, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs Josephine Webb, mother, 445 Cumberland Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingPipefitter
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number3346621
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at Enlistment445 Cumberland Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentMay 23, 1918
Age at Enlistment24
Theatre of ServiceGreat Britain
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathFebruary 24, 1958
Age at Death64
Buried AtBrookside Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Plot26-0724-0

Webb, Earl Edward

Earl Edward Webb was born on 24 December 1893 in Keewatin, Ontario, a small town a few kilometres west of Kenora in northwestern Ontario. His parents William Webb and Josephine Zapfe married on 5 November 1880 in Bayfield, Ontario. By the next year the couple was living in Guelph, Ontario, giving birth to son William George on 5 December. Over the years William worked as a cooper. At some point between the 1891 census and Earl’s birth in 1893, the family had moved to Keewatin. In 1915 Josephine and Earl moved to Winnipeg, his brother William having married in 1904. For the 1916 census Josephine was listed as married although Earl’s father William was not living with the family. At the time of the census Earl was working as a railway machinist.

Earl was living with his mother on Cumberland Avenue in Winnipeg and working as a pipefitter when he was called up for service on 23 May 1918 under the Military Service Act of 1917. First serving as a Private with the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment, Earl embarked for overseas aboard the Cassandra on 29 July 1918 with a draft to the Canadian Railway Troops.

Upon arrival in England Earl was taken on strength at the Canadian Railway Troops Depot at Purfleet. In early October he was admitted to the Military Hospital in Purfleet with synovitis of the knee. On 1 November he was transferred to the No 16 Canadian General Hospital in Orpington and then on to the Princess Patricia Canadian Red Cross Hospital Cooden Camp in Bexhill on the 23rd where he discharged on 20 December. Earl embarked for Canada on the Baltic on 29 January 1919 and was discharged from service on 12 March 1919 in Winnipeg.

For the 1921 census Earl and his mother were still on Cumberland Avenue with Earl working as a plumbing pipefitter. Josephine was listed as married although William was not with the family. On 10 July 1931, in Winnipeg, Earl married Anne Rogalin. The daughter of Ben Rogalin and Sarah Katz, Anne was born on 20 January 1913. Her parents had married in 1907 in Lachine, Quebec. Voters lists for Winnipeg gave Ben’s occupation as peddler.

Earl and Anne made Winnipeg their home where they lived for a number of years on Jessie Avenue. They gave birth to five children, sons Lawrence, Basil, and George, and daughters, Sharon and Corinne. Earl died on 24 February 1958 in the Bethani Home for the Aged in Winnipeg and is interred in Brookside Cemetery. He was predeceased by his mother Josephine in 1944 in Winnipeg and brother William in 1937 in Denholm, Saskatchewan, whereabouts of his father unknown. Earl’s wife Anne later died on 11 May 1974 in the Highland General Hospital in Oakland, California, near where her daughter Sharon Pfeifer was living. Anne is interred in Eden Memorial Park, Mission Hills, California.

By Judy Stockham


« Back To Soldier Biographies