Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthDecember 3, 1891
Place of BirthForester Falls, Renfrew County, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs. Ethel Marion Maude George (mother), Renfrew, Ontario
Trade / CallingBank Clerk
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number2381368
Service Record Link to Service Record
BattalionNo. 44 Wing
ForceAir Force
BranchRoyal Air Force (Canada)
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Address at EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentMarch 18, 1918
Age at Enlistment26
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathDecember 5, 1954
Age at Death63
Buried AtAlbert Street Cemetery, Arnprior, Renfrew County, Ontario
PlotJ-0730-Lot 4

Broome, Archibald Theodoric

Pilot Cadet Archibald Theodoric Broome joined the Royal Flying Corps in March 1918 and served in Canada for nine months. After the war he moved to Cuba where he lived for more than thirty years.

Archibald was born in Foresters Falls, Ross Township, Renfrew County, Ontario. He was the oldest son of Thomas Broome and Ethel Marion Maud Vale. Thomas was a farmer and he grew up in Ross Township but Ethel was from England. She was born in Liverpool in 1873 and after her father died she was taken in by the Liverpool Sheltering Home. She was sent to Canada as a home child at age 9 with Mrs. Louisa Birt. Also with her was her sister Ada Constance Winnifred, who was two years older. Children brought to Canada by Mrs. Birt went to Knowlton House in Quebec and from there most were placed with farm families. Ethel was 17 years old and living in Ross Township when she married Thomas Broome. They were married in October 1890 in Beachburg, a neighbouring village to Foresters Falls. Thomas and Ethel had three sons: Archibald (3 December 1891), Albert Ernest (April 1894) and Thomas Harold (February 1896). Sadly, Thomas Sr. died of consumption in March 1896 and Thomas Jr. died the following year, at age 17 months.

Archibald’s mother married again in February 1899. Her second husband, Joseph George, was a land agent and they settled in the town of Renfrew. Her sister Winnifred had become a nurse and she also lived in Renfrew. Ethel and Joseph had one child, their daughter Constance born in 1902. When the 1911 census was taken Archibald was 19 years old and working as a clerk for the Bank of Ottawa. He was enumerated twice, in his mother and stepfather’s household in Renfrew and also in the town of Cochrane, near Timmins. His brother Albert was a medical student and he joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps in January 1916. He went to England but was invalided back to Canada later that same year, due to illness, and he spent several months in a sanatorium in Kingston, Ontario.

Conscription started in Canada in the fall of 1917 and single men aged 20 to 34 were called up first. Archibald was working as a bank clerk in Kenora, Ontario and he had his medical exam in Winnipeg on 18 March 1918. He was enrolled with the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment. Three days later he was discharged from the army so he could enlist with the Royal Flying Corps. He spent his first month in reserve and during that time the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service were amalgamated to form the Royal Air Force. Archibald began his active service with Royal Air Force (Canada) on 24 April and he was assigned to No. 44 Wing (Toronto). He trained with them for eight months. The Armistice ended hostilities in November and he was discharged on 27 December, ‘in consequence of being Surplus to R.A.F. requirements.’

Around 1920 Archibald’s career in banking took him to Cuba, where he worked for the Bank of Nova Scotia. He lived in Santiago, on the southeast coast, and he made regular visits home to Canada. He was married in Ottawa on 15 November 1933 to Wilhelmina Munro. Wilhelmina was born in Arnprior, Ontario in 1896, the daughter of James and Mary Bole Munro. She moved to Cuba with her husband and they had one child, Mary Lorna, born in Santiago in 1937. Around that time they relocated to Havana, on the northwest coast of Cuba, and Archibald became the assistant bank manager there.

Archibald made what was likely his last trip home to Canada in July 1954, travelling via New York with his wife and daughter. He passed away on 5 December 1954, two days after his 63rd birthday, and he’s buried in Albert Street Cemetery in Arnprior, Ontario. In 1971, when her brother died, Wilhelmina was living in St. Agathe, Quebec. She died in 1977 and she’s buried beside her husband.

Archibald’s brother Albert graduated from Queen’s University in 1919. He had a long career as a physician and radiologist, first in Guelph then in Kingston. During the Second World War he served at two military hospitals in Ontario, earning a Long Service and Good Conduct medal. He passed away in December 1962. Their mother Ethel (1873-1945) and sister Constance (1902-1984) are both buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in London, Ontario.

By Becky Johnson

Broome-Archibald-90 Broome-Archibald-91


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