Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthApril 12, 1887
Place of BirthWinnipeg, Manitoba
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs Gertrude E Colquhoun, mother, Suite 11 Dorchester Apartments, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingGrain Broker
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number51092
Service Record Link to Service Record
BattalionRoyal Field Artillery
ForceBritish Army
BranchRoyal Field Artillery
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentDecember 24, 1914
Age at Enlistment27
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathFebruary 4, 1968
Age at Death81
Buried AtSaint John's Cathedral Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
PlotBlock E Plot 13 North Half

Colquhoun, Victor Alexander

Victor Alexander Colquhoun was born on 12 April 1887 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was the son of Andrew Colquhoun and his second wife Gertrude Elizabeth Wheeler. Andrew, born in Quebec, was a wholesale liquor merchant who had married Isabella Orr in 1870 in Montreal. Sometime after giving birth to daughter Clara Gertrude in 1872, the young family moved to Winnipeg where daughter Lulu Beatrice was born in 1880. Sadly, Isabella died in 1882 at age 32. Andrew and Gertrude had three children, Nora Elizabeth (b 1884), Victor, and Amy Walker (b 1888). Andrew died unexpectedly on 19 August 1899. Over the years Victor was involved in both hockey and football circles.

Victor signed his attestation papers in Winnipeg on 24 December 1914. His occupation was given as grain broker and his mother Gertrude in Winnipeg as next of kin. According to a later newspaper article Victor was a bookkeeper for Baird and Botterwell, brokers in Winnipeg. Before attesting his original unit had been the 34th Fort Garry Horse, moving to the 32nd Battalion payroll that November. In January of 1915 he was listed as a volunteer from the 32nd Battalion to the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Reinforcements, also listed on the PPCLI Reinforcements Nominal Roll that embarked from Canada for overseas on 3 February 1915.

On 23 February 1915 Victor embarked from Southampton, England to join the PPCLI in the field. Just a short time later, on 7 March coming out of the trenches at St Eloi, he sustained a gunshot wound to the leg. On 10 March he was admitted to the No 2 General Hospital in Havre, and then evacuated to England. A Winnipeg Free Press article of 18 March reported on Victor’s wounding. He was admitted on 3 April to the Canadian Red Cross Hospital that had been build on the Cliveden estate in Taplow, Buckinghamshire. From there he was transferred to the Canadian Military Hospital at Shorncliffe, discharged to furlough on 28 April – 12 May. Victor was granted another sick furlough to 28 July although he was discharged from service on 14 July for service as an officer with the Royal Field Artillery. Details of his RFA service are unknown although his British medal card gives his rank as Captain. Victor returned to Canada in August of 1919, arriving in Halifax aboard the Carmania on the 14th on his way back to Winnipeg.

Three of Victor’s brother-in-laws served during WW1. Nora Elizabeth married Harold Balleny Hamber in 1912 in Winnipeg, with Harold going overseas with the Canadian Army Pay Corps. Transferring to the Royal Air Force, Harold died in an airplane crash in England in October of 1917. Nora later married WW1 veteran Harold Pratt Johnson in 1920 in Winnipeg. Harold had gone overseas with the 8th Battalion, later to serve with the Canadian Army Pay Corps. Victor’s sister Amy married Harold Webster in 1913 in Winnipeg, Harold serving as a Lieutenant with the Ammunition Sub Park, Canadian Army Service Corps. On 1 January 1919 he was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Victor was found living with his mother Gertrude on Mulvey Street at the time the 1921 census, various census records indicating that Gertrude had been born about 1863 in Ireland and had immigrated to Canada in 1884. According to his obituary, Victor joined the Security Department of James Richardson and Sons in 1928. In 1947 he transferred as manager to Kenora in northwestern Ontario, retiring there in 1958 and later returning to Winnipeg to live. In October of 1957 Victor travelled to England for a month to visit his sister Amy (aka Annie) Webster who was living in Bournemouth.

Victor died on 4 February 1968 in Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg. At the time of his death he was survived by his sister Amy in England. Amy later died in 1970 in Bournemouth. He was predeceased by his mother Gertrude in 1937 in Winnipeg, sister Clara (Edward) Stephen in 1929 in Port Colborne, Ontario, sister Lulu (Andrew) Scoble in 1950 in Victoria, BC, and his sister Nora Elizabeth Johnson. Previously interred in an unmarked grave in the Saint John’s Cathedral Cemetery in Winnipeg. Victor’s grave marker was provided by Last Post Fund, Veterans Affairs.

By Judy Stockham

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