Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthFebruary 21, 1888
Place of BirthGateshead, Durham
CountryEngland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinWilliam Henry Laine (father), 86 Walter Street, Jarrow-on-Tyne, England
Trade / CallingPresbyterian theological student
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number523710
Service RecordLink to Service Record
BattalionNo. 1 Field Ambulance Depot
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Army Medical Corps
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Address at Enlistment180 Kennedy Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentFebruary 28, 1916
Age at Enlistment28
Theatre of ServiceGreat Britain
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathApril 7, 1945
Age at Death57
Buried AtQueen's Park Cemetery, Calgary, Alberta
PlotF-8-13

Laine, Charles Foulsham

Acting Corporal Charles Foulsham Laine was born on 21 February 1888 in Gateshead, Durham, England. His father, William Henry Laine, was born in Ireland and his mother, Phoebe Emily Smith, in Norwich, England. They were married in 1880 in Newcastle upon Tyne and they had five sons: William Foulsham (1883, died as an infant), William Henry (1885), Robert Warnet (1886), Charles Foulsham (1888) and Frederick Walter (1892). Charles’ father was a newspaper clerk and, by 1901, the manager of a newspaper office. When the 1911 census was taken Charles was living in Heworth, Durham and working as a grocer’s traveller. He immigrated to Canada the following year, arriving in March 1912 on the Lake Manitoba. His occupation was traveller and he was apparently on his way to Balcarres, Saskatchewan.

The war started in August 1914 and Charles enlisted in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 28 February 1916. He was living in Winnipeg by then and he was a Presbyterian theological student at Manitoba College. Next of kin was his father in England. Charles signed up with the No. 1 Field Ambulance Depot in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. He went overseas with the 5th reinforcing draft, arriving in England on 10 April 1916 on the Empress of Britain. He was posted to the Canadian Army Medical Training School. He served in the UK for the duration of the war due to pre-existing medical conditions.

Shortly after arriving in England Charles became ill with tonsillitis, followed by influenza. He recovered at Granville Special Canadian Hospital and No. 9 Canadian General, returning to the Training School in late June 1916. Starting on 1 July 1917 he served at the Shorncliffe Military Hospital and from September 1917 to June 1919 he was assigned to No. 9 Canadian General Hospital.

In the spring of 1919 Charles was granted permission to marry. He married Amelia Magdaline Church on 10 April in Neath, Glamorganshire, Wales. Amelia was born in Glamorganshire in 1890, the daughter of Thomas Lewis Church and Catherine Davies. After getting married Charles served in England for another five months. He and Amelia sailed from Liverpool on 17 September 1919 on the SS Melita, arriving in Quebec about a week later. Charles was discharged in Quebec on 28 September and he intended to reside in Winnipeg.

Charles had apparently trained as a teacher before immigrating to Canada and he taught at Solway School in Stuartburn, Manitoba for two years starting in 1919. When the 1921 census was taken Charles and Amelia were enumerated in Stuartburn. Charles taught at Melrose West School in the RM of Springfield from 1921 to 1922 then he became the principal of Kane School in the RM of Morris. His wife also taught at these three schools. Their daughter, Leona May, was born in Winnipeg on 25 December 1923. From 1924 to 1930 Charles was the principal at three other schools in Manitoba. Amelia made an extended visit to England with Leona from 1924 to 1926. When she returned in May 1926 Charles was living in Whitemouth, Manitoba. She went back to England in 1929 and returned to Canada in the fall of 1930, this time on her way to her husband in Winnipeg.

Around that time Charles took up ministerial work with the Presbyterian Church and served with several congregations in North Dakota. His wife filed for divorce in Winnipeg in August 1931 and two months later she returned to Wales with Leona. The divorce was granted in 1932 and Amelia was given full custody of their daughter. Charles moved back to Manitoba at some point and served as the minister at the Presbyterian Church in Morden in early 1937. Later that same year he served at the Presbyterian Church in Kenora, Ontario.

Charles was married again in 1940 in Medicine Hat, Alberta. His second wife, Myrtle Mary Elizabeth Reid, was born in 1903 in what is now Saskatchewan. Charles and Myrtle had one daughter, Mary Leona, born in 1942. About a year later they settled in Calgary, Alberta and Charles worked for an oil company. He passed away in Calgary on 7 April 1945, at age 57. His funeral was held three days later and he’s buried in Queen’s Park Cemetery.

Myrtle died in 1984 and Mary Leona (Mrs. Richard Roettger) in 1986. They are both buried in Newmarket Cemetery in Newmarket, Ontario. Charles’ first wife Amelia had passed away in Lincolnshire, England in 1953 and his daughter Leona May (Mrs. Percy Hesketh) died in Norfolk, England in 2011.

By Becky Johnson

Photo at top courtesy of the Laine public family tree on ancestry.com.

Information and second photo courtesy of Manitoba Historical Society: Charles Foulsham Laine


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