Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthFebruary 26, 1895
Place of BirthWorcester
CountryEngland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of Kinfather, Walter Rushton of Keewatin, Ontario
Trade / CallingClerk
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number439542
Service Record Link to Service Record
Battalion52nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentAugust 3, 1915
Age at Enlistment20
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathMay 5, 1954
Age at Death59
Buried AtMountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, British Columbia
PlotMASONIC/*/19A/002/0032

Rushton, Ernest

Ernest Rushton was born on 26 February 1895 in Worcester, Worcestershire, England. His father Walter and mother Letitia (née Booth) Rushton had married in Worcester in 1894. While in England Walter’s occupation on the censuses was given as ‘China Printer Earth’. There were four children in the Rushton family, Ernest (b 1895), Percy Frank  (b 1896), Horace Walter (b 1897) and Violet May (b 1901).

Walter Rushton immigrated to Canada in February of 1903 and found employment with the Lake of the Woods Milling Company in Keewatin, Ontario. Letitia and the children arrived in May of 1904 aboard the Ionion and by the 1911 census were living on Goat Road in Keewatin. Walter  was listed as working as a packer at the mill, Ernest’s  occupation was given as  printer and Percy was working at the Box Factory.

Ernest enlisted with the 52nd Battalion on 3 August 1915 in nearby Kenora. Occupation given as clerk, Ernest was found medically unfit for  the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force and was discharged days later. However, along with his brothers, his name is found on the Keewatin St James Anglican Church WW1 Roll of Honour as a member of the church who had enlisted, his intent to serve and contribution to the war deemed valuable.

Although both living in Winnipeg, Ernest married Elsie Jean Devlin on 25 October 1919 in Kenora. Elsie was the daughter of John and Bella (née Morris) Devlin. At some point the couple moved to Vancouver where Ernest worked as a printer for the News Herald.

Predeceased by his  mother Letitia  in 1929, his  father Walter in 1939, both in Kenora, Ernest Rushton died on 5 May 1954 in Vancouver. His cremains are in the Mountainview Cemetery, Vancouver. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Elsie in Vancouver and three children, Lloyd of Victoria, Jack of Calgary, and a daughter Mrs. G Townsend of Calgary.

Ernest’s brothers Horace and Percy enlisted in Kenora on 21 May 1917 with the 76th Battery Canadian Field Artillery. After training at Petawawa the brothers were sent overseas, serving  with the 43rd Battery, CFA in France.  In September of 1918 Driver Percy Rushton was wounded and hospitalized until the following January when he returned to Canada. Horace, also a Driver, returned to Keewatin in April of 1919. Horace died in Kenora in 1953 and Percy died in Deer Lodge Hospital in Winnipeg in 1959 following a lengthy illness. Both are interred in Lake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora.

by Judy Stockham

obituary: courtesy of Mike Melen
grave marker photos: taken by cemetery staff and uploaded to findagrave.com by Islandergirl with permission

Rushton-Ernest-1 Rushton-Ernest-2 Rushton-Ernest-3


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