Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthSeptember 14, 1881
CountryIreland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinNora Hartigan, sister, 92 Brookline Avenue, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
Trade / CallingCook
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number820999
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion44th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentAugust 28, 1916
Age at Enlistment35
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathApril 22, 1957
Age at Death75
Buried AtBrookside Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
PlotMlty-4428-0

Hartigan, William

Although William Hartigan gave his date and place of birth on his attestation papers as 14 September 1881 in Boston, Massachusetts, he was likely born in 1878 in Ireland. His sister Nora had immigrated to the United States in 1896, settling in Brookline, Massachusetts. William was found on the passenger list of the New England that arrived in Boston from Ireland on 14 June 1900. His latest residence was given as Bantry, Ireland, and he was on his way to his sister Nora in Brookline. According to his obituary he immigrated to Canada in 1906, eventually finding work in the Kenora, Ontario area.

William signed his attestation papers with the 141st Battalion in Kenora on 28 August 1916. His occupation was given as cook and his sister Nora in Brookline, Massachusetts as next of kin. In February of 1917 he was hospitalized in Winnipeg for two weeks with trouble with varicose veins. As a Private with the 141st Battalion, he embarked from Halifax aboard the Olympic on 28 April 1917.

Once in England William was transferred to the 18th Reserve Battalion and then on to the 44th Battalion in September. After spending just over a month in a Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp he joined the 44th Battalion in the field on 6 November 1917. William was awarded a Good Conduct Badge in August of 1918 and granted a fourteen day leave to the UK in October. With the end of the war he returned to England in April of 1919 and arrived back in Canada aboard the Empress of Britain on June 4th. He was discharged from service in Regina on June 9th.

After the war William returned to the Kenora area, found on the 1921 census working as a cook for a bush camp in the Black River/Long Bay/Yellow Girl area of Lake of the Woods. Over the years he worked for the Ontario Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company. A 1945 Voters list for Sioux Narrows gave his occupation as caretaker. He joined the Kenora Branch of the Canadian Legion and later retired to nearby Keewatin.

William died on 22 April 1957 in Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg. His Veteran Death card listed his friend Andrew Jones Sr of Keewatin as next of kin. William is interred in a military plot in Brookside Cemetery, Winnipeg.

by Judy Stockham

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