Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJuly 3, 1888
Place of BirthWinnipeg, Manitoba
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs Laura Kyle, sister, 10914 - 81st Avenue, Edmonton, Albert
Trade / CallingGraduate/Registered Nurse
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental NumberNA
Service Record Link to Service Record
BattalionNursing Sisters
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Army Medical Corps
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentSuite M Westminster Apartments, Edmonton, Alberta
Date of EnlistmentMay 7, 1917
Age at Enlistment28
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathFebruary 18, 1973
Age at Death84
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot58E-29-3

Johnston, Christina Margaret

Christina Margaret Johnston was born on 3 July 1888 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her parents John Dickinson Johnston and Ellen Brydon married on 6 March 1878 in Guelph Township, Ontario. After giving birth to children Helen and William the family had moved to Winnipeg by 1882. They gave birth to daughter Laura that year followed by Christina in 1888 and Jennette Lillian in 1890. Over the years Johnston/Johnson was used interchangeably on various records, with John’s occupation given as farmer, carpenter, traveller, and salesman. At one point the family took in a couple of boarders. By the time of the 1911 census Ellen had died, with Christina and her father found living with her sister Helen and husband George Mauthe and family in Winnipeg. John was working as a carpenter in a machine shop while Christina was working as a glassware saleslady in a hardware store.

Christina was living in Edmonton and working as a graduate/registered nurse when she signed her Officers’ Declaration Paper with the Canadian Army Medical Corps on 7 May 1917. She gave her sister Laura Kyle who was also living in Edmonton as next of kin. As reinforcement to the CAMC Nursing Sisters, Christina embarked from Canada on 28 June 1917. She served in a couple of hospitals in Great Britain including the Granville Canadian Special Hospital at Ramsgate and Moore Barracks Military Hospital/No 11 Canadian General Hospital at Shorncliffe until proceeding overseas to the No 2 Canadian General Hospital in Le TrĂ©port, France. In early December Christina was granted a fourteen day leave, returning on the 20th. In late February 1919 Christina was transferred to England, posted to the Canadian Army Medical Corps Casualty Company at Shorncliffe on the 22nd for a few days before transferring to the CAMC R&T Department. On 30 April Christina moved to the No 4 Canadian General Hospital in Basingstoke and then on to the No 15 Canadian General Hospital at Taplow. Struck off strength to Canada, Christina embarked from Liverpool aboard the Carmania on 5 July and discharged on the 20th.

After the war Christina returned to Edmonton, living in Strathcona and working as a registered nurse at the time of the 1921 census. Likely in Alberta she married Robert John William Berry. Born on 7 July 1883 in Mildmay, Ontario, John was the son of Irish immigrants Robert Berry and Jane Williams. His family farmed in the Mildmay area, with John eventually leaving to start his banking career with the Bank of Nova Scotia in Kitchener. He served in many branches in eastern and western Canada with the inspection staff before becoming manager. By 1926 Christina and Bob were living in Lethbridge where they gave birth to son William. In 1932 they moved to Kenora, Ontario where John managed the Bank of Nova Scotia until his retirement in 1946. Other children born to the family were Robert (1927), Jean, and Helen.

Christina died on 18 February 1973 in Kenora. She was predeceased by her parents and all of her siblings as well as her son William on 22 September 1954 in Alberta and husband John on 26 April 1964 at Pinecrest Home for the Aged in Kenora. At the time of her death she was survived by her son Robert (Audrey) Berry of Kenora, daughter Jean (John) Whitehead of Roland, Manitoba, daughter Helen (Kenneth) Newton of North Bay, Ontario and eight grandchildren. Christina and John are interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora.

By Judy Stockham

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