Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMay 7, 1895
Place of BirthOrillia, Simcoe County, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinJohn Hartley, father, North Battleford, Saskatchewan
Trade / CallingFarmer
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number821024
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion44th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentKenora, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentOctober 2, 1916
Age at Enlistment21
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathApril 28, 1953
Age at Death58

Hartley, Frederick Raymond

Frederick Raymond Hartley signed two sets of attestation papers, the first with the 9th Canadian Mounted Rifles in April of 1915 in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. He gave his date and place of birth as 7 April 1894 in Midland, Ontario and his father John Hartley in Richard, Saskatchewan as next of kin. On 29 October 1915 Frederick was struck off strength as a deserter. Using the surname of Harkley, he signed his second set of attestation papers with the 141st Battalion in Kenora, Ontario on 2 October 1916, date and place of birth given as 7 May 1895 in Orillia, Ontario.

Frederick’s parents were John Hartley and Elizabeth Smith who married on 17 October 1872 in Penetanguishene, Ontario and who were to farm in the Midland/Honey Harbour area for a number of years before moving to the Whitemouth, Manitoba area to farm around 1899. Frederick was their youngest child, having older siblings William, Thomas, Alice, Ethel, Maude, Neil, Gertrude, Muriel, and Douglas. Sadly his mother Elizabeth and brother Neil both died in 1906 in Whitemouth. By the 1911 census John had taken up farming south of the Battlefords in Saskatchewan. It appears that Fred was living in the Regina area and working as a hired hand at the time of the census.

By the time Frederick enlisted in Kenora he was married (Roseina Phillips) and had a small son named Gerald who was born in 1915 in Saskatchewan. However he gave his next of kin as his father John in North Battleford. While training in Port Arthur, Frederick was hospitalized with bronchitis in December 1916 and then again in January of 1917. In March he was further hospitalized for two weeks with a case of measles. As a Private with the 141st Battalion he embarked from Halifax aboard the Olympic in late April of 1917.

Once in England Frederick was transferred to the 18th Reserve Battalion and then on to the 44th Battalion in June, joining the unit in the field on 2 September after spending time with the 4th Entrenching Battalion. Just a short time later, in late October, Frederick was reported as dangerously ill due to shell gas poisoning. The battalion had been in the front line trenches east of Ypres near Decline Copse. On the 31st Frederick was admitted to the No 13 Canadian Field Ambulance and then on to the No 17 Casualty Clearing Station on 2 November. By 6 November he had been transferred to the No 53 General Hospital in Boulogne, released to the No 1 Convalescent Depot on the 19th and discharged to Base Details on the 22nd. In mid December Frederick rejoined the battalion in the field. A Kenora Miner and News article of 10 November 1917 reported Frederick as dangerously ill due to gassing while a Winnipeg Free Press article of 21 November mistakenly reported his death due to gas poisoning, leaving behind a wife and small son in Maymont, Saskatchewan.

In mid March of 1918 Frederick was granted a fourteen day leave to Paris and upon his return he was to spend time in field ambulances and hospitals with stomatitis, balanitis, and scabies. He was granted a second leave in early December, fourteen days to the UK. By late January 1919 he was out of service and was back in England by the end of March. Frederick embarked from Southampton on 2 July and was discharged from service in Halifax on 17 July.

Not a lot is known about Frederick’s life after the war. He was found farming in the Douglas/Redberry Lake area in the district of North Battlefield in Saskatchewan for the 1921 census with son Raymond who was born in 1920 having joined the family. Later that year daughter Norma Lillian was born. A notation in his service record placed him in North Battlefield in 1926. At some point Frederick and Roseina separated, with Frederick farming with his father at the time of the 1931 census and Roseina, now married to David Purdy, living with the two younger children (surname given as Purdy) in the Timiskaming area in Ontario.

As noted in his service record, Frederick died on 28 April 1953, place of death and final resting place unknown. According to son Gerald’s later obituary, Gerald served in WW2 as an aircraft mechanic with the RCAF. Gerald died in 1992 in Kirkland Lake. He was predeceased by his brother Raymond in 1981 and sister Norma (John Hamilton) in 1991. Roseina later died in 1996. Gerald, Norma, and Roseina are interred in the Kirkland Lake Cemetery.

by Judy Stockham

Hartley-Frederick-Raymond-2 Hartley-Frederick-Raymond-3


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