Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthFebruary 26, 1896
Place of BirthPortage la Prairie, Manitoba
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinJohn Brough, father, Winnipegosis PO, Manitoba
Trade / CallingFisherman
ReligionMethodist
Service Details
Regimental Number3346559
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion Manitoba Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at EnlistmentWinnipegosis
Date of EnlistmentMay 18, 1918
Age at Enlistment22
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathAugust 10, 1940
Age at Death44
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot41E-39-4

Brough, John Alexander

John Alexander Brough was born on 26 February 1896, birth registered in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. His father John Allen Brough was from the Northwest Territories while his mother Harriet Sanderson was from Manitoba. The couple married on 1 February 1889 in Portage la Prairie. Alex had two older siblings, Mary Ann (b 1891) and Isabella (b 1894) and a younger brother William (b 1898). The family lived in Poplar Point, Aberdeen, and Mossy River, all in Manitoba, over the years and by 1916 father John was managing a fox farm north of Dauphin near Winnipegosis. Along with Alex, he was also a fisherman on Lake Winnipegosis.

With the onset of conscription in the latter part of the war, Alex was drafted under the Military Service Act of 1917. He signed his recruitment papers on 18 May 1918 in Winnipeg, occupation given as fisherman, date and place of birth as 26 February 1897 in Poplar Point, and his father John Brough, Winnipegosis PO, as next of kin. He was granted a conditional leave and discharged from service on 21 January 1919 in Winnipeg.

It appears that Alex’s mother died during or just after the war, with his father later marrying Jessie Lodema Davis on 4 July 1921 in Winnipeg. Shortly after the marriage the couple moved to Kenora, Ontario where John Sr was a carpenter for the Ontario-Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company. Alex moved to Kenora around 1923.

Alex died tragically on 10 August 1940 in Kenora when his ‘shack’ on 9th Street North near the paper mill caught fire. He is interred in an unmarked grave in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora. At the time of his death he was survived by his father John and stepmother Jessie, both of Kenora, and his siblings Mary Ann (William) Stainger of Elmwood, Isabella (Charles) Langlois of Winnipegosis, and brother William (Arabella) of Whitefish Bay. Jessie died in 1952 followed by John in 1955, both interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery. Alex’s siblings Isabella died in 1944 in Dauphin, Mary Ann in 1966 in Red Deer, and William in 1967, William also interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery along with his wife Arabella.

By Judy Stockham

Brough-John-Alexander-2 Brough-John-Alexander-3 Brough-John-Alexander-4 Brough-John-Alexander-5

Alex’s grave marker was installed in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in 2018 by the Last Post Fund.


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