Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthOctober 17, 1892
Place of BirthEdmonton, Alberta
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinAG McKittrick, father, 10628 84th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta
Trade / CallingStudent
ReligionMethodist
Service Details
Regimental Number911305
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion196th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentEdmonton, Alberta
Address at Enlistment10628 84th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta
Date of EnlistmentMarch 14, 1916
Age at Enlistment23
Death Details
Date of DeathJanuary 7, 1982
Age at Death89
Buried AtRose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, Los Angeles County, California, USA
PlotGarden of Rest Lawn, Section 22 Lot 2121 Grave 3

McKittrick, Elmer Samuel

Elmer Samuel McKittrick was born on 17 October 1892 in Edmonton, Alberta. His father Austin Gordon McKittrick was from Orangeville, Ontario where his father, an Irish immigrant, had opened a foundry. His mother Jane (Jennie) Timney was from near Maple Valley, Grey, Ontario but by the time of the 1881 census was living with her family in Mono, a community about 12 kilometres north of Orangeville. Austin and Jennie married on 17 July 1883 in Mono. Over the years the surname was alternately spelled as McKitrick.

Apprenticing in foundry work and moving to Chicago, Austin and Jennie lived there until joining missionary work and returning to Canada in 1887. Daughter Mabel Elizabeth was born in 1889 in Ontario before the family moved to western Canada. At the time of the 1891 Canada census the family was living in Morley, Alberta where Austin was listed as a teacher and missionary. In 1892 he applied for a homestead in the Saddle Lake area and had started work on the property, building a 1 1/2 story log house, stable, and shack, and clearing some of the land. He also worked as a missionary/teacher on the nearby reserve. Other areas in Alberta where Austin did missionary work were White Whale Lake and Stony Plain. Children born in Alberta were Elmer, Eva Annie in 1894 in Edmonton, Winnifred Isabel in 1897, and Olive Amanda in 1898, both in Saddle Lake. Sadly, Mabel died in 1894 and is interred in the Goshen Cemetery, Morinville, Alberta.

In 1900 the family relocated to northwestern Ontario do missionary work in the town of Keewatin near present day Kenora. Daughter Jean Kathleen was born in Keewatin later that year. In 1908 they moved to Brandon, Manitoba for a year where Austin worked as a machinist, then moved back to Edmonton the next year where he operated the Imperial Foundry.

Elmer signed his attestation papers with the 196th Battalion (Western Universities) on 14 March 1916 in Edmonton. His occupation was given as student and his father Austin in Edmonton as next of kin. Meeting the requirements, that May he was certified as a Lieutenant with the Officers Training Corps in Ottawa. Listed as a Sergeant on the nominal roll of the 196th Battalion, Elmer embarked for England on the Southland on 1 November 1916.

Once in England the 196th Battalion was absorbed into the 19th Reserve Battalion on 1 January 1917. That October Elmer was transferred to the Saskatchewan Regimental Depot and then placed on command to the 17th Officer Cadet Battalion at Kinmel Park. In late March 1918 he was approved for a commission with the Territorial Forces, 8th London Regiment. Further details of his service are unknown. A Lieutenant McKittrick was found on the passenger list of the Megantic that arrived in Quebec on 8 July 1919, destination given as Weston, Ontario.

By the time of the 1921 census Elmer was living at home with his parents and working as a clerk at the university while his father Austin was working as a dairy salesman. That year the family adopted Winnifred Ruth Poston. Born in 1916 in Whitefish Lake in Alberta, Ruth was the daughter of Charlie Poston and Julia Lorer. Sadly her mother had died in 1920 followed by her father in 1921, leaving their children orphaned.

On 29 June 1921, in Edmonton, Elmer married Ella Miriam Wilson. Born in the township of Russell, Ontario on 26 December 1895, Ella was the daughter of Horace Wilson and Margret Andra Scott. By the 1916 census her family was living in Edmonton.

By now a civil engineer, Elmer and Ella moved to the Los Angeles area in 1923, arriving in Seattle on the Princess Charlotte on 30 April. Children born to the couple in the States were Margaret Jane (1925, Walnut Park) and John Wilson (Jack) (1927, Los Angeles). At the time of the 1930 census the family was living in Los Angeles where Elmer was working as a civil engineer for the Southern California Edison Company. By the 1940 census the family had moved back to Walnut Park where it appears that Elmer had started his own business, ES Kittrick Company, Inc, listed as a contractor for industrial building on the census. By 1942 when Elmer signed his WW2 registration card they were living in nearby Huntington Park.

Elmer and Ella divorced in 1967 with Elmer later marrying Marian (née Staples) Prudence. Born in 1906 in Los Angeles, Marian was the daughter of Earl Staples and Florence Bailey. In 1927 she had married Norman Prudence, giving birth to one known child, Ronald. Marion had previously worked as a secretary for Elmer’s company.

Elmer died on 7 January 1982 in Los Angeles. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Marian, children Margaret (Malcolm) Furbush and Jack (Amy Morrison), and siblings Eva and Ruth (James) Kinloch. He was predeceased by his young sister Mabel, his mother Jennie (1933) and father Austin (1943), both in Edmonton but interred in Goshen Cemetery, and siblings Olive (Clifford) McKeever in 1942 in Prince George, BC, and Winnifred (Francis) Haythorne in 1963 in Edmonton. Donating her remains to the University of Guelph, Elmer’s sister Jean (Hubert) Thurlow was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Guelph in April of 1969. His first wife Ella died in 1983 in Santa Clara, wife Marion in 1993 in Tucson, Arizona, and sisters Eva in 1993 in Edmonton and Ruth in 2009 in Lloydminster, Alberta. Elmer and Marion are interred in Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier, California.

By Judy Stockham