Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthNovember 16, 1891
Place of BirthDunfermline, Fife
CountryScotland
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinWilliam Campbell, father, Piche PO, Saskatchewan
Trade / CallingFarmer
ReligionMethodist
Service Details
Regimental Number256562
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion1st Depot Battalion, Saskatchewan Regiment
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Place of EnlistmentRegina, Saskatchewan
Address at EnlistmentPiche PO, Saskatchewan
Date of EnlistmentJanuary 3, 1918
Age at Enlistment26
Theatre of ServiceCanada
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJuly 2, 1946
Age at Death54
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot46E-43-4

Campbell, William

William Campbell was born on 21 November 1891 in Pattiesmuir on the outskirts of Dunfermline, Fife in Scotland. According to the 1901 Scotland census, his father William Campbell was from Kilberry in Argyll while his mother Isabella Brown was from Dunfermline where the couple had married on 14 January 1891. Over the years William Sr worked as a farm servant/agricultural labourer. By the time of the 1901 census the family had moved to Goatmilk, Kinglassie, Kinglassie a community about 25 kilometres east of Pattiesmuir. Known children born to William and Isabella were William, Annie (abt 1892), Margaret (Maggie) (abt 1898), and Elizabeth (1901). Sadly, Isabella died in March of 1904 in Kinglassie.

Likely later in 1904 or early in 1905, William and children William, Annie, and Elizabeth immigrated to Canada. On 29 March 1905, in the county of Ontario in Ontario, William Sr married Mary Eliza Barker. The daughter of Leason Barker and Elizabeth Banner who had married in 1858 in Whitby, Ontario, Mary Eliza grew up on her parents farm in the Reach area of Ontario. By the time of the 1906 Western Canada census, William, Mary Eliza, and the children had moved to Saskatchewan to farm in the Harris/Marriott area. Children born in Saskatchewan were Rose Dorothy (1906), Allan Andrew (1908), and John (1913).

With the onset of conscription in the latter part of the war, William had his medical examination on 5 November 1917 in Saskatoon, a notation indicating that he wore glasses and that his vision was poor without them. He was called up for service on 3 January 1918 at Regina, assigned to the 1st Depot Battalion, Saskatchewan Regiment with rank of Private. At the time of his enlistment his occupation was given as farmer and his father William Campbell at Piche PO as next of kin. William was hospitalized for a few days at the Camp Hospital in Saskatoon in late October and then admitted to St Paul’s Hospital with a severe cold on 3 November, discharged on the 17th. His unit at the time was listed as Engineers Fatigue. William was discharged from service on demobilization on 12 May 1919 in Saskatoon, intended residence given as Harris, Saskatchewan.

According to his obituary, William moved to the Kenora area in northwestern Ontario in 1929. His sister Elizabeth had married Edmond Villeneuve and by 1922 and the birth of their first child they were living in the Kenora area. William farmed for a number of years in the nearby township of Jaffray and Melick.

William died on 2 July 1946 in the Kenora General Hospital as a result of typhoid fever/typhoid pneumonia. His sister Elizabeth was listed as informant on his Ontario death record. At the time of his death he was survived by his stepmother Mary Eliza in Saskatoon, his sister Mrs A Burns back in Scotland, sister Elizabeth (Edmond) Villeneuve in Kenora, and stepbrothers Allan and John in Saskatoon. He was predeceased by his stepsister Rose (Gordon Thomas) Tosh in 1926 in Harris, his father in 1943 in Saskatoon, and likely his sister Margaret. William is interred in the Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora.

By Judy Stockham


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