Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 22, 1889
Place of BirthSaint André-Avellin, Quebec
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinJoseph Charlebois (father), Kenora, Ontario
Trade / CallingFarmer
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number4070332
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Address at EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentDecember 11, 1917
Age at Enlistment28
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathAugust 17, 1976
Age at Death87
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot56E-32-3

Charlebois, Emile

Private Emile Charlebois of Kenora, Ontario was called up in November 1917, at age 28. He served for seven months with the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment.

Emile was the youngest son of Joseph Charlebois and his second wife Azilda Picard. Joseph married Azilda in October 1884 in Saint André-Avellin, Quebec, a small village north of Papineauville, where he was a farmer. He had two daughters with his first wife and with Azilda he had four more children: Philippe (1886), Marie Aldée (1888), Emile (22 March 1889) and Honorius (1891). Emile’s mother died in 1892 when he was three years old and his father was married a third time in 1893 to Georgianna Levert.

In the early 1900s Joseph, Philip and Emile left Quebec and moved to the Kenora area in northwestern Ontario. They lived near Black Sturgeon Lake in the township of Jaffray Melick and in the 1911 census Joseph and Philip were listed as farmers. Conscription was introduced in Canada in the summer of 1917 and single men age 20 to 34 were required to register by November. Emile failed to register and he was called up on 11 November as a defaulter. He had his medical exam in Winnipeg on 11 December and due to a medical condition he was classified as C3, suitable for service in Canada only. He was assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment. He served with them until July 1918 when he was struck off strength and ‘Returned to Registrar’s Records.’ His brother Phillip Charlebois had enlisted early in 1916 and he was killed in France in March 1918.

Emile returned to the Kenora area when his service ended, going back to farming at first then later finding work in the logging industry. He married a local girl, Nellie Brinkman, on 2 January 1926 in Winnipeg and they had one son, Gilbert Henry. Nellie died in August 1947 in Toronto and she’s buried in Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora. Emile’s second wife was Doris Fife (née Anderson) and he had a stepson Ronald and two stepdaughters, Lorna and Marguerite. Emile belonged to the Salvation Army and the Senior Citizens Film Club. He passed away in Lake of the Woods District Hospital on 17 August 1976, at age 87. His wife Doris died in 1995 and his son Gilbert in 2007. They are all buried in Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora. Emile was in an unmarked grave but a veteran grave marker was provided by the Last Post Fund in October 2018.

By Becky Johnson

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