Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 17, 1894
Place of BirthPeninsula Harbour, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinFred Hinds (father), 702 McMillan Avenue, Winnipeg
Trade / CallingCarpenter
ReligionBaptist
Service Details
Regimental Number523519
Service RecordLink to Service Record
BattalionNo. 14 Field Ambulance
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Army Medical Corps
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg
Address at Enlistment702 McMillan Avenue, Winnipeg
Date of EnlistmentDecember 6, 1915
Age at Enlistment21
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJune 1, 1984
Age at Death90

Hinds, Frederick Ellsworth

Private Frederick Ellsworth Hinds signed up with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in December 1915, at age 21, and served overseas for more than three years.

Ellsworth was the son of Frederick Hinds and Isabel Mathieson of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Frederick was born in Brussels, Ontario and Isabel in Toronto. They were married in 1891 in Cobden, Ontario and they moved west a short time later. Ellsworth, their oldest child, was born on 17 March 1894 at Peninsula Harbour, on the north shore of Lake Superior. He was followed by two daughters, Jean Audrey in 1896 and Violet in 1897, both born in the district of Thunder Bay. The youngest son, Robert, was born in Rat Portage, Ontario in 1900. When the 1901 census was taken the family was still living in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), but within a few years they had moved to Winnipeg. Ellsworth’s father was a stone mason and builder and in Winnipeg he became a partner in the firm Hinds and Mitchell, general contractors. He was also an active member of the Winnipeg Builders’ Exchange and served a term as 1st Vice President.

The war started in August 1914 and Ellsworth enlisted on 6 December 1915. He was 21 years old and living at home, with his occupation listed as carpenter. He joined ‘A’ Section of the No. 1 Field Ambulance Depot and he trained in Winnipeg for three months. He embarked for England with the 4th reinforcing draft on 2 March 1916 on the SS Scandinavian, arriving eleven days later and getting transferred to the Canadian Army Medical Corps training school. In April Ellsworth was posted to the Ontario Military Hospital in Orpington, where he served for the next year. During that time he was a patient himself for a week in September, suffering from myalgia, and in February 1917 his mother passed away in Winnipeg, at age 50.

In March 1917 Ellsworth was transferred to No 14 Field Ambulance at Witley. At the end of the month he spent a week in the hospital suffering ill effects from an inoculation. His unit was part of the 5th Canadian Division which was never fully formed or sent to France. Early in 1918 the units were broken up and used as reinforcements for the four divisions in the field. Ellsworth arrived in France with No. 14 Field Ambulance in June 1918 and served with them until the end of the war. Field ambulances operated advanced and main dressing stations, which were located just behind the front lines. They provided short term medical care, collecting casualties, treating them and evacuating them to the clearing stations and hospitals as needed. They also operated rest stations and provided stretcher bearers for moving the wounded.

The Canadians were heavily involved in operations in the last three months of the war, a period known now as the Hundred Days Offensive. They suffered 20% of their total battle casualties during that time. Ellsworth returned to England three months after the Armistice, arriving on 15 March 1919 and getting posted to Canadian Army Medical Corps ‘C’ Company in order to attend Khaki University. His father Frederick Hinds was also in England. He had enlisted in April 1916 and he served in Great Britain with the Canadian Forestry Corps. Frederick returned to Canada in June 1919 and Ellsworth followed a month later, sailing on the SS Winifredian. He arrived in Halifax on 28 July and he was discharged two days later in Toronto. He was awarded the British War and Victory medals.

Later that same year Ellsworth and his brother Robert moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin. In the 1920 U.S. census Ellsworth was listed as a building contractor and Robert was working in a bed factory. By 1935 Ellsworth was living in Rowley, Massachusetts. He was married on 6 June 1937 in Rockingham, Vermont. His occupation was photographer, his address Ipswich, Massachusetts and it was his second marriage. His wife, Rebecca Marie Gosselin, was born in New Hampshire to French-Canadian parents, Damas and Helias Gosselin. Ellsworth and Rebecca made their home in Ipswich where they owned and operated a photography shop, Hinlin’s Studios.

Ellsworth passed away in Plymouth, Massachusetts on 1 June 1984, at age 90, and Rebecca died two days later, on 3 June, at age 100.

By Becky Johnson

McPhail-Lionel-90

Ellsworth is listed as ‘E. Hines’ in this newspaper article. Photo at the top is the British War Medal.


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