Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJune 11, 1867
Place of BirthSaint Anne des Chenes, Manitoba
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinJean Baptiste Perrault, brother, Fort Frances, Ontario
Trade / CallingMiner
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number199356
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion16th Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Address at EnlistmentIgnace, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentApril 27, 1916
Age at Enlistment49
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJune 5, 1952
Age at Death85
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot37E-36-2

Perrault, Edouard

According to his obituary, Edouard Perreault (dit Morin) was born on 11 June 1867 in Saint Anne des Chenes, Manitoba (with the citation of SB-Rozyk p 186 B-52, Gail Morin gives a birth date of 11 June 1870). His grandfather, Jean Baptiste Perreault (dit Morin), was born in Quebec where he married Marie Ducharme, also born in Quebec, before moving to the Red River Settlement around 1815. Edouard’s father, also named Jean Baptiste, born around 1824 in the Red River Settlement, married Catherine Grouette. Catherine had been born in the United States, the daughter of Antoine and Madeleine Nolin. Records indicate that Antoine was born in Quebec and that Madeleine was Métis.

The Perreault families farmed in the area of Saint Anne des Chenes. Other known children born to Jean Baptiste and Catherine were Marguerite (abt 1846), Jean Baptiste (abt 1849), Damase (abt 1851), Madeleine (abt 1853), Catherine (abt 1855), William (abt 1857), Marie (abt 1858), Rosalie (abt 1861), Antoine (abt 1863), Anonyme (abt 1864), Boniface (abt 1866). Edouard was the youngest child born to the family.

On 12 November 1889, in Saint Anne, Edouard married Marie Sophie Curtaz. Sophie, born in the United States, was the daughter of Pierre and Caroline Curtaz. Her father had been born in France while her mother was from Manitoba. Edouard and Sophie’s first child, a son Joseph Alexandre Raymond, was born in July of 1891, birth registered in La Broquerie, but he died that December. A second son, Joseph Pierre Marius, was born in 1892, followed by a daughter, Laurentia in 1895. Marius died in late 1899.

The 1891 Canada census found Edouard and Sophie farming in Saint Anne des Chenes, neighbours of Sophie’s parents. By the 1901 census they were living in Tache, Algoma where Edouard was working as a miner; daughter Laurentia was living with her maternal grandparents in the subdistrict of La Broquerie. Laurentia later married Hercule Houde in 1914 in La Broquerie.

It appears that Sophie may have died before the 1911 Canada census although a death record was not found. As found in the census, Edouard, single and listed as a lodger, was living in Dryden, Ontario, and working in a nearby gold mine.

With occupation given as miner in Ignace, Ontario and his brother Jean Baptiste in Fort Frances as next of kin, Edouard signed his attestation papers in Dryden, Ontario on 27 April 1916. He gave Three Rivers, Quebec as his place of birth, and his birth date as 9 June 1881, probably giving the false information to cover his advanced age. He gave his marital status as single.

Organized in November of 1915 with mobilization at Port Arthur, Ontario, the 94th Battalion had recruited in throughout northwestern Ontario, including communities of Port Arthur, Fort William, Kenora, Rainy River, Fort Frances, and Dryden. The unit trained in Port Arthur during the spring of 1916 before embarking for overseas aboard the Olympic on 29 June 1916. On board was Private Edouard Perrault.

Once in England Edouard was transferred to the 17th Reserve Battalion. A short time later he embarked for France, taken on strength with the 16th Battalion in the field in late August. Edouard’s time in France was to be very short as on 13 October 1916, at the Somme, he sustained what was first listed as a gunshot wound to the fore arm. Later reports included shrapnel bits in the wound of the compound fracture to the ulna. He was first admitted to the No 3 General Hospital in Boulogne, transferred to the 2nd West General Hospital in Manchester a few days later, and then on to the Canadian Military Hospital in Eastbourne in late April of 1917. Infection had set in to the wound and it had to be incised a number of times. Damage was permanent and it was decided that Edouard would be invalided to Canada.

Edouard arrived back in Canada aboard the Araguaya that June. A Kenora newspaper report spoke of his return in an article dated July 7th, mentioning his sister Mrs Mongrain. Edouard was to spend time at the Tuxedo Park Convalescent Hospital in Winnipeg, with a discharge from service issued on 31 January 1918 as medically unfit. His record indicated his intended place of residence was to be Saint Anne des Chenes, but another Kenora newspaper article of the 9th of March, spoke of his return to Kenora.

By the 1921 Canada census Edouard was living in Ignace, Ontario where he was working as a prospector. According to his obituary he went on to work as a cook at the Ignace YMCA for 30 years (not possible for that length of time) before being hospitalized at St Joseph’s in Kenora around 1947. Edouard died on 5 June 1952 at the hospital. He is interred in a military plot in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora with his gravemarker being recently replaced with a new one.

by Judy Stockham

Perrault-Edouard-2 Perrault-Edouard-3 Perrault-Edouard-4 Perrault-Edouard-5

research notes:
As per his attestation papers, an Edward (Edouard) Perrault (Perreault) born in 1881 in Three Rivers (Trois Riviere) in Quebec does not exist. The tribute written here is based on newspaper clippings, including his obituary and that of his sister, information found in his service record, census data, birth, marriage, and death records for his children, The Genealogy of the First Métis Nation compiled by DN Sprague and RP Frye, and Gail Morin’s Métis Families, A Genealogical Compendium.

Edouard’s name had various spelling in the sources. He usually signed his name as Edouard Perreault although his record had the name recorded as Edouard Perrault. By the time of his death the common spelling was Edward Perrault. His name inscribed on his gravemarker is Edouard Perrault.

 


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