Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthAugust 22, 1881
Place of BirthRat Portage (Kenora), Ontario
CountryCanada
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinJoseph Charboneau, father, 5th St North, Kenora, Ontario
Trade / CallingBrakeman
ReligionRoman Catholic
Service Details
Regimental Number71795
Service Record Link to Service Record
BattalionDepot Battalion, CRT
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Railway Troops
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Date of EnlistmentNovember 4, 1914
Age at Enlistment34
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathApril 30, 1941
Age at Death59

Charboneau, Vincent Victor

Private Vincent Charboneau enlisted during the early days in the war and after suffering an injury to his leg in a fall in the trenches, he was to spend the rest of the war in England where he met his bride to be. Unlike the many war brides that made their way to Canada, Vincent was to make England his home.

Baptized on 23 August, Vincent Victor Charboneau (also spelled Charbonneau) was likely born on 22 August 1881 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora). His father Joseph Felix Charboneau was from Ottawa and had come to northwestern Ontario to work on the construction of the railway. His mother Helen Collins was from St Jerome in Quebec. The couple married in November of 1880 in the Rat Portage Courthouse. Vincent was their oldest child, followed by Ernest, Margaret, John, Helene, Amelia, and Mary Louise. By the 1911 census Joseph’s occupation was given as railroad engineer and Vincent was working as a delivery man.

Vincent signed his attestation papers in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 4 November 1914. His occupation was given as brakeman and his father Joseph in Kenora as next of kin. His date of birth was given as 22 June 1880. Organized in October of 1914 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel I Snider with recruitment in Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Rainy River, Kenora, and Winnipeg, the 27th Battalion was mobilized in Winnipeg. As a Private with the 27th Battalion, Vincent embarked from Quebec on 28 May 1915 aboard the Carpathia. By the middle of September the battalion was in France.

Less than two weeks after arriving in France Vincent was admitted to the No 2 Canadian Field Ambulance with the injury to his knee, eventually diagnosed as synovitis of the knee, a painful inflammation with swelling due to the accumulation of fluid at the site. He was to spend time in a couple of hospitals in France, the last one the No 25 General Hospital in Etaples for a few days before being invalided to England on 3 November 1915. The knee required surgery and Vincent spent just over four months in hospitals before being discharged from Monks Horton Convalescent Hospital in March of 1916. Upon discharge Vincent was attached to the 40th Battalion as Acting Corporal while on police duty. In January of 1917 he was transferred to the 26th Reserve Battalion, reverting to the rank of Private. In May he was transferred to the Canadian Railway Troops Depot at Purfleet to be Acting Corporal with pay where he was to serve until the end of the war. During the 2nd quarter of 1918 in the registration district of Orsett in Essex, Vincent married Gertrude Elizabeth Tomlin. Vincent returned to Canada in mid December aboard the Corsican and was discharged in Winnipeg in January 1919 due to demobilization. A local Kenora newspaper article had reported of his expected return to the town late the previous December.

At some point Vincent returned to England, with Gertrude giving birth to son Jack in the third quarter of 1919 followed by daughter Gladys during the last quarter of 1922, births registered in the district of Orsett, Essex. Predeceased by his mother Helen in 1918 in Kenora, Vincent died on 30 April 1941 in Hadleigh in southeast Essex. At the time he and Gladys were living on Hart Road in nearby Thundersley. His father died in 1944 in Kenora and his wife Gertrude in 1956 in Sheffield, Yorkshire West Riding.

By Judy Stockham

Photograph of Vincent (listed as Charboneau) with the 27th Battalion is from the commemorative book of the 27th Battalion, Military District No. 10, 1915.


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