Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMay 23, 1894
Place of BirthVillage-Saint-Paul, Grand Anse, Gloucester County, New Brunswick
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinMrs. Louise Landry (mother), Village-Saint-Paul, New Brunswick
Trade / CallingLabourer
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number2378316
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion52nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Date of EnlistmentNovember 23, 1917
Age at Enlistment23
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathSeptember 26, 1957
Age at Death63
Buried AtSt. Simon and St. Jude Cemetery, Grand Anse, New Brunswick
PlotSection 3

Landry, Alexandre

Private Alexandre Landry was called up in November 1917 in Winnipeg. He arrived in France ten months later and served with the 52nd (New Ontario) Battalion in the last weeks of the war.

Alexandre was born on 23 May 1894 in Village-Saint-Paul, Grand Anse, Gloucester County, New Brunswick. His parents, Levi Landry and Marie Louise Godin, were of Acadian ancestry and both born in Gloucester County. They were married in 1891 in Marie Louise’s hometown of Paquetville. Alexandre was the second of at least seven children: Thomas, Alexandre, Marie Romaine, Nicholas, Emile, Mary Ann and Arthur.

The war started in August 1914 and conscription was introduced in Canada three years later. Single men aged 21 to 34 were called up first and they were required to report by 10 November 1917. Alexandre failed to register and he was drafted as a defaulter on 23 November 1917 in Winnipeg. He may have been working in the Kenora area at the time. His occupation was labourer and next of kin was his mother Louise Landry in Stonehaven, New Brunswick (her address was later changed to Village-Saint-Paul). Alexandre was assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion, Manitoba Regiment and he was sent overseas in their second draft. He embarked from Halifax on 5 February 1918 on the SS Grampian and arrived in England about ten days later.

On 17 February Alexandre was transferred to the 18th Reserve Battalion. In March he had surgery at No. 11 Canadian General Hospital for a minor medical problem. He recovered for most of April at the convalescent centre in Monks Horton. At the end of April he was transferred to the Manitoba Regiment Depot and he trained in England for another five months. On 26 September he was drafted to the 52nd (New Ontario) Battalion and sent to France. The 52nd Battalion had been organized in Port Arthur and originally recruited in towns throughout northwestern Ontario, including Kenora.

The Canadians were heavily involved in operations in the final months of war. When Alexandre joined the 52nd Battalion they had just crossed the Canal du Nord and a few days later the city of Cambrai was captured. The battalion continued to advance northeast and at the end of October they were near Valenciennes, close to the Belgian border. The Armistice was signed on 11 November and they entered the town of Mons, Belgium that afternoon. A few days later Alexandre developed a skin infection and he was in the hospital until 2 December. After some time at the Canadian Corps Reinforcement Camp he rejoined his unit on 24 December.

The 52nd Battalion stayed in Belgium for another six weeks. On 5 February 1919 they entrained for the coast, embarking from Le Havre, France on 10 February and landing in England the next day. The troops were sent to Bramshott Camp and most of them were immediately given leave. After five weeks in England they left for Canada on the SS Olympic on 17 March. There was a huge reception for the men when they arrived in Port Arthur and Alexandre was demobilized there at the end of the month. The Kenora lads arrived home on 31 March and a large reception was held the next day at the Tourist Hotel, with over 200 returned soldiers in attendance. Alexandre was listed in the Kenora Miner and News as one of the local returned veterans.

After the war Alexandre’s address was Norman, Ontario and he stayed in the Kenora area for at least two years. When the 1921 census was taken he was living in Minaki and working in a sawmill. Sometime after that he returned to his hometown of Saint-Paul, New Brunswick. He was married in Grand Anse on 22 June 1925. His wife, Rose-Anna Downing, was born in the nearby village of Saint-Léolin, the daughter of Joseph François Downing and Marguerite Bertin. Alexandre and Rose-Anna made their home in Saint-Paul and they had at least six children: Marianne (1928, died as an infant), Corinne (1929), Marie-Louise Marguerite (1930, died at age two), Omer Joseph (1933, died as an infant), Adelbert (1934, died at nine months) and Marguerite (1938). Alexandre and his brothers Emile and Arthur all farmed in Saint-Paul.

Alexandre passed away at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Bathurst on 26 September 1957, at age 63. After being widowed his wife married Clement Godin and she died in 1996, at age 93. Alexandre and Rose-Anna are buried at St. Simon and St. Jude Cemetery in Grand Anse. Also buried there are Alexandre’s brothers, Emile and Arthur, and other family members.

By Becky Johnson

Landry-Alexandre-90 Landry-Alexandre-91

Grave marker photos courtesy of Doug Pederson on findagrave.com.


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