Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthAugust 12, 1895
Place of BirthCollingwood, Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinFrank William Moore, father, PO Box 337, Kenora, Ontario
Trade / CallingPO Box 337, Kenora, Ontario
ReligionBaptist
Service Details
Regimental Number2384024
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion Manitoba Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Date of EnlistmentNovember 23, 1917
Age at Enlistment22
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathAugust 29, 1978
Age at Death83
Buried AtHillcrest Memorial Gardens, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Moore, Frank John

With brown hair, gray eyes, and only 1/2 inch difference in height, the Moore twins were born on the same day, had their medical examinations on the same day, both were working as trainmen for the Canadian Pacific Railway at the time of the war, and both were called up for service on the same day.

Franklin John Moore and Stewart William Moore were born on 12 August 1895 in the Township of Collingwood, Ontario. (Ontario birth registrations give the names as John Franklin and William Stewart but most other records reverse the forenames.) The boys’ father was Frank William Moore, born in 1853 in Scarborough, Ontario on the outskirts of Toronto. According to his obituary, Frank ‘had some remarkable experiences as a youth, taking part with the famous Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill) and Dr Doyle in the punitive relief expeditions that went too late to the assistance of General Custer and his soldiers who were massacred by the Indians.’ In the early 1880’s Frank ended up in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario, engaged in the ongoing construction work of the day. However, while in the area he found his true calling, that of a miner, and is reputed to have been the first to make gold discoveries at Yellow Girl on Lake of the Woods. The boys’ mother Charlotte Amelia (Lottie) Strong was born in the Township of Collingwood to her Irish immigrant father and Upper Canada born mother. Her father first worked as a farm labourer, then as a carpenter before the family farmed in the area. Although Frank was living in Rat Portage and Lottie in the Township of Collingwood, the couple married on 25 November 1890 in Toronto. The 1891 census found the newlyweds living in Rat Portage where Frank was working as a miner, giving birth to their first child daughter Treasure Gladys that December. A short time later the family moved to the area between Collingwood and Thornbury in the Township of Collingwood to farm. Children born while farming were Mary Violet (1893) and Frank and Stewart. By the birth of the next child, daughter Irene in 1898, the family was back in Rat Portage, making it their home. Daughter Maude was born in 1903, completing the family.

With the onset of conscription in the latter part of the war, Frank and Stewart had their medical examinations of 23 November 1917 in Kenora. They both were called up in May of 1918, signing their recruitment papers as Privates with the 1st Depot Battalion Manitoba Regiment on the 23rd in Port Arthur. Both gave their father Frank back in Kenora as next of kin, assigning a portion of their pay to their mother Lottie. Occupations for both was given as trainman.

Late that August Frank was given a conditional leave, likely as he was needed on the railroad. With the end of the war, he was struck off strength on demobilization in Port Arthur on 10 January 1919.

With the 81st Draft of the 1st Depot Battalion Manitoba Regiment, Stewart arrived in England aboard the Nellore on 15 August 1918. He was taken on strength with the 18th Reserve Battalion where he was to serve for the duration of the war. He embarked for Canada on 14 June 1919 aboard the Aquitania, discharged from service on 24 June in Winnipeg.

After the war both Frank and Stewart returned to Kenora, found living on 7th Avenue South with their parents and some of the siblings at the time of the 1921 census. Frank was working as a trainman but it appears that Stewart was unemployed at the time. Sadly, their father Frank died in 1929 in Kenora. At the time Frank and Stewart were living in North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

Frank worked for a number of years with the Canadian National Railway in Saskatchewan, latterly out of Biggar before moving to Saskatoon. In 1932 he married graduate nurse Pearl Edith Wilson. Born in 1906 in nearby Langham, she was the daughter of Joseph and Mary (née Bethune) Wilson. Her parents were both from Ontario but had likely met in North Dakota where they married in 1894. The family farmed in Strabane, Grand Forks, North Dakota but around 1903 moved to the Langham area in Saskatchewan to farm. Frank and Pearl gave birth to one known child, daughter Ioane Pearl in 1934.

Frank died on 29 August 1978 in Saskatoon. He was survived by his wife Pearl and daughter Ioane (Wilfred) Drager, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren. He was predeceased by all his birth family: brother Stewart in 1959 in Edmonton, his mother Lottie in 1962 in Kenora, sister Maude (Andy ) Sigurdson in 1968 in Winnipeg, sister Violet May (James) McKinnon in 1972 in Kenora, and sister Treasure (Hugh) MacMurphy in 1977 in Kenora. Along with his father Frank, all are interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora. His sister Irene (Alec) Locke died between 1962-1968, likely in Hamilton. Frank’s wife Pearl died on 28 July 1979 in Saskatoon and is interred with Frank in the Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Saskatoon. Her parents Joseph and Mary, both passing away in 1957, are also interred in the cemetery. Frank and Pearl’s daughter Ioane died on 7 November 2008 in Saskatoon.

By Judy Stockham

Saskatoon obituaries: courtesy of Elsie Henry
Gravemarker photo: Canadianheadstones.com

Moore-Franklin-John-2 Moore-Franklin-John-3 Moore-Franklin-John-4


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