Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthDecember 16, 1886
Place of BirthListowel, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinDr CC Tatham, brother, Edmonton, Alberta
Trade / CallingBanker
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number727191
Service Record
Battalion4th Divisional Mechanical Transport Company
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Army Service Corps
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentDecember 1, 1915
Age at Enlistment29
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJuly 5, 1960
Age at Death73
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot20E-13-2

Tatham, Albert William

Albert William Tatham was born on 16 December 1886 in Listowel, Ontario. His father William George Tatham, a hardware merchant, was from Guelph, Ontario while his mother Jane Flaherty was from Maryborough, Ontario. The couple married on 12 October 1876 in Listowel. Children born to the couple were Charles Carlyle (1877), George Sidford (1979-1881), Arthur Edward (1880), Mary Goodeve (1882), William Gordon (1984-1884), and Albert. Sadly George and William died in infancy or as a toddler. By the time of the 1911 census Albert was lodging with Willam and Sarah McCoy in Hamilton, Ontario where he was working at a bank.

Albert enlisted with the 110th Battalion on 11 December 1915 in Listowel. His occupation was given as banker and his brother Dr Charles Tatham in Edmonton as next of kin. Transferring to another unit he arrived in England on 29 May 1916 aboard the Adriatic, taken on strength with the Canadian Army Service Corps Training Depot. Albert was posted to the 4th Canadian Divisional Ammunition Sub-Park in July and embarked for France on 11 August. Ammunition Parks operated dumps, or stores, of ammunition. This included the larger calibers of artillery shells which required special handling equipment, smaller shells, mortar rounds, grenades and small arms ammunition. In December of 1917 Albert was awarded a Good Conduct Badge and granted a fourteen day leave. The 4th Canadian Divisional Mechanical Transport Company, CASC was formed in April 1918 by the amalgamation of No 4 Canadian Divisional Supply Column and No 4 Canadian Divisional Ammunition Sub-Park. Albert was taken on strength with the new unit on 15 April. He was granted a second two week leave on 21 February 1919, returning on 3 March. Albert returned to England in mid May and embarked for Canada aboard the Olympic on 6 June. He was discharged from service on demobilization on 12 June in Toronto.

On 2 August 1924, in Listowel, Albert married Lunetta Sarah Elmina (Thornton) Hay. Born on 20 April 1886 in Orono, Ontario, Elmina was the daughter of Richard Thornton and Adela Whaley. She had married George Arnold Hay, a coal merchant, in 1906 in Brantford, Ontario. The couple gave birth to three sons, Edward John (1907), Wellington George (1908), and Percy Thornton (1910). George enlisted in September of 1915 in Calgary with the No 4 McGill University Company for Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry reinforcements. While overseas George became involved with Ada Sumner whom he later married.

Albert and Elmina settled in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. They gave birth to two children, Albert and Mary Elmina. A Voters list of 1940 gave Albert’s occupation as salesman but by 1943 he was working as the manager of the Portage la Prairie Unemployment Insurance Commission. At some point after retiring in 1953, Albert and Elmina moved to Longbow Lake just east of Kenora.

Albert died on 5 July 1960 at the Kenora General Hospital. He was predeceased by his father William in 1921 and mother Jane in 1927, both in Listowel, his young brothers in infancy/childhood, his brother Charles in 1935 and brother Arthur in 1954, both in Edmonton. Elmina later died on 5 October 1971 in Port Elgin, Ontario. At the time of her death she was survived by four sons Albert Tatham in Ottawa, Thornton Hay in Ottawa, John Hay in Wellesley, Ontario, and Wellington Hay in Aldershot, BC as well as daughter Mary (James) Cameron and three grandchildren in Winnipeg. Albert and Elmina are interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora.

By Judy Stockham

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