Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMay 13, 1891
Place of BirthKenora, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMorison Kyle (father), Alexandra Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland
Trade / CallingClerk
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number2023421
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion11th Battalion, Canadian Garrison Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Garrison Regiment
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at EnlistmentPantages Theatre, Vancouver, British Columbia
Date of EnlistmentMay 15, 1918
Age at Enlistment27
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJuly 29, 1944
Age at Death53
Buried AtCremated (Vancouver Crematorium, Vancouver, BC)

Kyle, Roy Stuart

Private Roy Stuart Kyle was called up in Vancouver in the spring of 1918. He served in Canada with a garrison regiment for seven months.

Roy was the middle of five sons of Morison Kyle and Jessie Bell Stuart. Morison was born in Glasgow, Scotland and immigrated to Canada around 1880. Jessie was born in Middleton, Norfolk County, Ontario to Scottish parents. They were married in Aylmer, Elgin County, Ontario in May 1885. Jessie was living in Aylmer at the time and Morison in Guysborough, Norfolk County. Their first son, Charles Morison, was born in Guysborough in 1886.

When Charles was still a baby Morison and Jessie moved to the town of Rat Portage (later called Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. Four more sons were born there: Louis Alexander (1888), Roy Stuart (13 May 1891), James Arthur Gladstone (1892) and Stuart Robertson (1896). Morison worked in Rat Portage as a general merchant and miner. He was one of five partners who owned the Western Ontario Mining Co., which was based in Rat Portage.

By 1903 the Kyle family was living in Vancouver where Morison was the provincial manager of an insurance company. From there they moved to Winnipeg for a short time before settling in Calgary. Morison became involved in theatrical entertainment and he was the owner and manager of Calgary’s Empire Theatre, which was built in 1908. Roy was employed as the treasurer and secretary. The theatre was listed in the city directory up to 1913 and in 1914 Morison was the branch manager of Bow Valley Oils Ltd. However, he continued to be involved in theatre in Canada, the U.S. and Scotland. By 1919 he was writing plays, a career that would span more than twenty years.

Roy’s older brothers, Charles Morison and Louis Alexander, both enlisted in the fall of 1915 and served overseas. By the time conscription started in Canada in 1917 Roy was living in Vancouver and working at Pantages Theatre. He had his army medical in October 1917 and he was called up the following spring, on 15 May 1918. His occupation was clerk and next of kin was his father Morison, who was in Glasgow, Scotland at the time. Roy was assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion, B.C. Regiment but he was transferred the following day to the 11th Battalion, Canadian Garrison Regiment. His brother Charles had returned from England the previous fall and he was also serving in the 11th Battalion, C.G.R. Roy served in the Vancouver area for seven months, getting discharged on demobilization on 2 December 1918 in Vancouver. His character was described as very good.

After the war Roy likely stayed in the Vancouver area, where most of his family lived. His mother died in Vancouver in 1935 and his brother Charles in 1941. At some point his father returned east and took up prospecting. He died in Winnipeg in 1949 and he’s buried at Brookside Cemetery.

Roy was working as a crane operator when he passed away on 29 July 1944, at age 53. He died at the Vancouver General Hospital following surgery to remove a blood clot in his arm. Two of his surviving brothers died in Vancouver, Stuart in 1961 and James in 1974. Louis passed away in Terrace, BC in 1977.

By Becky Johnson


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