Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthAugust 23, 1891
Place of BirthBonfield, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinHenry Mann, brother, Rainy River, Ontario
Trade / CallingPipe fitter
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number3232332
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion2nd Depot Battalion 1st Central Ontario Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at EnlistmentNosbonsing, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentNovember 11, 1917
Age at Enlistment26
Theatre of ServiceGreat Britain
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathFebruary 22, 1968
Age at Death76
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
PlotB-15-4

Mann, Arthur Joseph

Although he gave his date of birth as 21 August 1890 on his recruitment paper, Arthur Joseph Mann was born on 23 August 1891 in Bonfield, Ontario. His parents James and Marguerite (née Laporte) Mann, both originally from Quebec,  had married in Bonfield.  Other children born to the couple were Henry Laporte (1887-1922), Jean (John)  Jaques (1890-1950), and Martha Delima (1893-1896). In 1891 the family was living in Bonfield with father James listed as hotel keeper on the census.  By 1901 they had moved to Sault Ste Marie where James was working as a carpenter, with the family taking in a number of lodgers. A short time later James died in Bonfield. By the  1911 census Arthur was working as a porter in a hotel in Cobalt, Ontario.

Arthur signed his recruitment papers on 11 November 1917 in Toronto, Ontario, assigned to the 2nd Depot Battalion 1st Central Ontario Regiment.   At the time he had been living in Nosbonsing working as a pipe fitter. His brother John (Service No. 3232330) also signed his papers with him the same day.

Arthur embarked from Quebec on 10 September 1918 on the Thermistocles, arriving in London on the 25th. The next day he was taken on strength with the 8th Reserve Battalion at Witley. By January of 1919, the process for Arthur’s return to Canada had begun as he was posted to No 2 Wing at Kimmel Park. Private Arthur Mann returned to Canada aboard the Cassandra that embarked from Glasgow, Scotland and arrived in Montreal on 5 July 1919.

It is not known when Arthur moved to Kenora but after the war he married Elizabeth Leroux, daughter of Frank and Valerie (Wolfe) Leroux,  on 8 November 1920 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.   Elizabeth had been born in Poplar River, Red Lake, Minnesota but had moved to the Kenora area sometime after the 1911 census.  Arthur and Elizabeth had  four daughters, Florence, Violet, Pearl, Shirley, and six sons, Arthur, Lawrence, Albert, Robert, Donald and Paul.

Arthur worked for the Ontario Minnesota Paper Company in Kenora for 36 years, retiring on 1 August 1960. Predeceased by Elizabeth in 1958, he died on 22 February 1968 in Kenora. Arthur and Elizabeth are interred in the Roman Catholic section of the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora. After the death of his father, at some point his mother had moved to Ketchikan, Alaska where she lived for a number of years. She returned to the Kenora/Keewatin area in the 1930’s and married Fred Parfitt on 10 January 1934. Marguerite died on 15 July 1937 and is also interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery. Most of Arthur’s and Elizabeth’s children stayed in the area.

by Judy Stockham

Mann-Arthur-Joseph-2 Mann-Arthur-Joseph-3

 

 


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