Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthMarch 16, 1888
Place of BirthOrillia, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinJeanie Reid McIntyre, wife, 224 Spencer Street, Collingwood West, British Columbia
Trade / CallingSawyer
ReligionPresbyterian
Service Details
Regimental Number2022271
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion72nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Place of EnlistmentVancouver, British Columbia
Address at EnlistmentSaw Mills, Port Moody, British Columbia
Date of EnlistmentApril 2, 1918
Age at Enlistment30
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Death Details
Date of DeathMay 30, 1952
Age at Death64
Buried AtOcean View Burial Park, Burnaby, British Columbia

McIntyre, James Allan

By most accounts James Allan McIntyre was born on 16 March 1888 in Orillia, Ontario. His parents James Stephen McIntyre, a carpenter/cabinet maker, was from Edgar, Ontario while his mother Emma Louisa Brunson, a nurse, was from Tiny, Ontario. The couple married on 15 December 1885 in nearby Wyevale, Simcoe County. Settling in Simcoe County, they gave birth to children Maria (1887), James, Earl Dalton (1890), Joseph Stanley (1892), Clair Lee (1897), and Mary Ruth (1899). At some point the marriage failed, with Emma marrying Percy Burdick on 31 October 1913 in Niagara Falls, New York, USA.

By the time of the 1911 Canada census James was living on 3rd Street South in Kenora, Ontario and working as a filer. From there he moved to British Columbia where he found work as a sawyer in Port Moody on the outskirts of Vancouver. On 24 December 1917, at the residence of the bride’s parents in South Vancouver, James married Jeanie Reid McIntyre. Born on 2 August 1896 in Ayr, Ayrshire in Scotland, Jeanie was the daughter of John McIntyre, a carpenter, and Susan Reid. Her parents had married on 4 July 1890 in Ayr. Along with her siblings and parents, Jeanie had immigrated to Canada in 1909, arriving in Quebec aboard the Ionian on 23 August, on their way to Vancouver.

With the onset of conscription in the latter part of the war, James was called up for service on 23 April 1918 in Vancouver. His occupation was given as sawyer at a sawmill in Port Moody and his wife Jeanie in Collingwood West in Vancouver as next of kin. As a Private with the 61st Draft of the 1st Depot Battalion, British Columbia Regiment, James arrived in England on 15 August 1918 aboard the Kuntsend. After training with the 1st Reserve Battalion, James arrived in France on 8 November and was taken on strength with the 72nd Battalion the next day, joining the unit on the 30th. The 72nd Battalion was authorized on 10 July 1915 and had embarked for Britain on 23 April 1916. It disembarked in France on 13 August 1916 where it fought as part of the 12th Infantry Brigade, 4th Canadian Division in France and Flanders until the end of the war. With the end of the war James returned to England in early May of 1919 and embarked for Canada on 6 June aboard the Olympic. He was discharged from service on demobilization on the 20th in Vancouver.

James’ father James enlisted with the 149th Battalion in Sarnia, Ontario in January 1916, falsifying his age to appear younger. However he was discharged from service as overage that July in London, Ontario. James’ brother Dalton enlisted with the 216th Battalion in February of 1917 in Toronto and served in France with the 51st Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps and the 54th Battalion in the last days of the war. Living in Niagara Falls, New York, his brother Stanley enrolled with the Navy Enrolling Office in Detroit, Michigan in September of 1917, rank of 3rd Class Fireman. He served on the USS Columbia from 30 June 1917 to 31 March 1918, transferring to the receiving ship in New York. His record indicated that he was at the Naval Prison Portsmouth in New Hampshire from July to November 1918, discharged from service in April of 1920. James’ brother Clair enlisted at the Vancouver Barracks in Washington, USA in December of 1917 and first served with the Signal Company of the 424th Aero Squadron in the States. Aero Squadrons were the designation of the first United States Army aviation units until the end of World War I. These units consisted of combat flying, training, ground support, construction and other components of the Air Service. In July of 1918 Clair was transferred to the 43rd Spruce Squadron. The US Army formed the Spruce Production Division (SPD) to increase the flow of airplane wood by providing men to work in the forests and mills. Eventually, the use of Army men and equipment helped to greatly increase the production of spruce, fir, and cedar (all being used for airplane and ship production). Clair was discharged from service in late December 1918, rank of Private.

James and Jeanie continued to live in the Vancouver area, with James having a long career as a sawyer with the Canadian White Pine Company. The Canadian White Pine Division of MacMillan Bloedel, Limited, located on the Fraser River in Vancouver, British Columbia, was one of the oldest mills on the West Coast. It was the first sawmill owned and operated by the H.R. MacMillan Export Co., the predecessor company to MacMillan Bloedel, Limited. According to his later British Columbia death record he worked for the company for 35 years, retiring in 1949. James and Jeanie gave birth to two children, daughter Dorothy in 1918 and son Alan David in 1929.

James died on 30 May 1952 at their home on Sexsmith Road, Lulu Island in Richmond, BC. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Jeanie, daughter Dorothy and son Alan and family, and brothers Dalton and Clair. He was predeceased by his mother Emma (1935, Midland, Ontario), father James (1943, Elmvale, Ontario), siblings Mary Ruth (1915, Medule, Ontario), Stanley (1923, Detroit, Michigan), and Maria (Samuel) Swailes (1928, Midland, Ontario). Dalton later died in 1963 in Vancouver, Clair in 1979 in Contra Costa, California, Alan in 1982, Jeanie in 1985 and Dorothy in 1995, the latter three all in Vancouver. James and Jeanie are interred in Ocean View Burial Park in Burnaby, BC.

By Judy Stockham

Grave marker photographs provided by Vic Gibson, findagrave.com.