Personal Details | |
Date of Birth | Around 1871 |
Place of Birth | Copenhagen |
Country | Denmark |
Marital Status | Single |
Next of Kin | A. Wittendorf (friend), Norman, Ontario |
Trade / Calling | Labourer |
Religion | Lutheran |
Service Details | |
Regimental Number | 199002 |
Service Record | Link to Service Record |
Force | Canadian Expeditionary Force |
Branch | Canadian Ordnance Corps |
Enlisted / Conscripted | Enlisted |
Place of Enlistment | Kenora, Ontario |
Address at Enlistment | Kenora, Ontario |
Date of Enlistment | February 22, 1916 |
Age at Enlistment | About 45 |
Theatre of Service | Great Britain |
Prisoner of War | No |
Survived War | Yes |
Death Details | |
Date of Death | September 20, 1934 |
Age at Death | About 73 |
Buried At | Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario |
Plot | 36E-39-2 |
Private Charles Anderson signed up with the 94th Battalion in Kenora, Ontario in February 1916. He served for two years in Canada and the UK and returned home in March 1918.
Charles, or Charley, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and immigrated to Canada as a young man. By the time he enlisted, on 22 February 1916, he was about 45 to 50 years old, living in Kenora and working as a labourer. He signed up with a local unit, the 94th Overseas Battalion. The 94th was based in Port Arthur and recruited in towns throughout northwestern Ontario. In May 1916 the Kenora volunteers were sent to Port Arthur to join the rest of the unit. They left for Quebec two weeks later and spent a short time at Valcartier before embarking from Halifax on 28 June 1916 on the SS Olympic.
In England the recruits were absorbed into reserve battalions to be used as reinforcements for other units. Charley was transferred to the 17th Reserve Battalion on 13 July. Less than a month later he was posted to the Canadian Casualty Assembly Centre due to having a hernia and being overage. Despite his health issues he served in England for another 18 months, most of that time with the Canadian Ordnance Corps. On 13 February 1918 he was transferred to the Canadian Discharge Depot to await his return to Canada. He embarked from Liverpool on the SS Grampian and arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick on 17 March. Four days later a medical exam in Winnipeg found him to be overage (about 55 years old) and with a right inguinal hernia aggravated by military training. He arrived back home in Kenora on 22 March and was discharged on 1 April as medically unfit for further war service.
In 1919 when he applied for his war gratuity Charley was living at the Dalmore Hotel in Kenora. He passed away in the Kenora General Hospital on 20 September 1934, suffering from a heart condition and diabetes. He was given a Legion funeral on 22 September and laid to rest in Lake of the Woods Cemetery.
By Becky Johnson
Charles’ grave marker was installed in Lake of the Woods Cemetery in 2018 by the Last Post Fund.