Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthOctober 6, 1889
Place of BirthChristchurch, Hampshire
CountryEngland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinNoah James, Jasmin Cottage, Broadway, Dorset, England
Trade / CallingBaker
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number439019
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion52nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentDecember 18, 1914
Age at Enlistment25
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathOctober 14, 1966
Age at Death77
Buried AtCedar Valley Memorial Garden, Cedar, B.C.

James, Arthur Frederick

Arthur Frederick James was born on 06 October 1889 in Christchurch, Hampshire, England.  He was the second son of blacksmith, Noah James and Augusta ELLEN Elliott.  His siblings included Nellie ‘Ellen’ (b. 1887), Henry Edward (b. 1888), Ernest Walter (b. 1891), Reginald Wilfred (b. 1896), Margaret May (b. 1897) and Winifred Maud (b. 1903).

Arthur was educated in England. He came to Canada aboard the Empress of Ireland and landed in Quebec on 12 October 1911. His destination was Kenora, Ontario where his older brother Henry was working in a flour mill. They were joined by brother, Ernest, in 1913. All three brothers worked at the flour mill.  Arthur was a baker.

With the outbreak of WW1, Arthur, Ernest and  Henry all enlisted with the 52nd Battalion in Kenora. Ernest and Arthur signed up on 18 December 1914 and Henry joined on 22 December 1914. By June of 1915 the three brothers were in Port Arthur, Ontario for training. Ernest and Henry headed overseas with the 2nd Reinforcing Draft of the 52nd Battalion on 04 September 1915, embarking from Montreal aboard the S.S. Missanabie. Arthur was medically discharged from service in Port Arthur on 22 October 1915 due to a pre-existing medical condition.

Arthur married Mary Alice Stanbrook on 1 January 1916 at Fort William, Ontario. The 1921 Canadian census shows them still living in Fort William where Arthur was employed as a policeman for the railroad. At some point the couple moved to British Columbia. They were in Vancouver in 1939. Voter’s lists show  they moved to Nanaimo where Arthur was working as a policeman in 1953 and a bank custodian in 1965.

Arthur died on 14 October 1966 in Nanaimo, B.C.and  is buried in Cedar Valley Memorial Garden, Cedar, B.C.

Arthur’s brothers, Henry and Ernest both returned home from the war. Their youngest brother, Reginald Wilfred was not so lucky.  He had served as a private in the British Inniskiller Regiment and was killed in action on 25 June 1918.

Grave marker photograph provided by renegade13, ID# 51631169, findagrave.com.

 


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