Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJanuary 28, 1889
Place of BirthNorth Somercotes, Lincolnshire
CountryEngland
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinMrs Emma Locking, wife, 208 Lindsay Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Trade / CallingRailway Mechanic
ReligionChurch of England
Service Details
Regimental Number2503270
Service RecordLink to Service Record
BattalionNo 69 (Canadian) Wagon Erecting Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Railway Troops
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentWinnipeg, Manitoba
Address at Enlistment208 Lindsay Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date of EnlistmentJanuary 15, 1918
Age at Enlistment29
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathDecember 14, 1954
Age at Death66
Buried AtRiverview Cemetery, Fort Frances, Ontario
PlotEast Section, Block F, Lot 4

Locking, Albert William

The son of Annie Adelaide Jones, Albert William Dunham Jones was born on 28 January 1889 in North Somercotes, Lincolnshire, England. At the time of his birth his mother was working as a domestic servant. By the 1891 England census, Annie and Albert were listed as visitors with the William and Caroline Humberstone family in North Somercotes, Caroline having been the witness on Albert’s birth record. Annie’s date and place of birth unknown, with some records indicating that she was born between 1867 and 1870 in England while others in Wales. At some point shortly after the census was taken, Annie and Albert immigrated to Canada, with Annie marrying Charles Percy Webb on 6 October 1891 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. The marriage record indicated that they both had been living in Lockington, Rainy River, Ontario. A witness on the record was John Ludwig Locking. Child Percy Ludwig Webb was born in 1892 in Rat Portage and Myrtle Amelia Webb in 1893 in Minnesota. At the time of the 1895 US census for Duluth, Minnesota, Annie and children Albert, Percy, and Myrtle were living with John Locking, Annie listed as housekeeper and the three children going by the surname of Webb. On 28 August 1896, in the registration district of St. Louis (likely in Duluth), Annie and John married. Moving back to the Emo area in the Rainy River district to farm, daughter Grace Adelaide was born in 1896 followed by daughter Mary in 1900. By time of the 1901 census for Emo, Mary had likely died as she was no longer with the family, and all the children has assumed the surname of Locking.

On 15 June 1910, in nearby Rainy River, Albert married Emma Lena Bourre. At the time of the marriage both were living in Rainy River, with Albert working as a machinist. Born in 1881 in the parish of St George in the East in London, England, Emma was the daughter of John Phillip Bourre, a boot and shoemaker, and Margaret Heplee, her parents marrying in 1863. At the time of the 1901 England census Emma had been living with her sister Mary Semken and family in Leyton, East London where she was working as a tailoress.

After the marriage Albert and Emma lived in Rainy River for awhile where Albert worked as a railway car repairer, giving birth to daughter Margaret Ann in 1911. By the time of the birth of their next child, daughter Marie Irene in 1912, the family had moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Other children born in Winnipeg were John Albert (1913) and Winnifred Emma (1915). By the 1916 census for Winnipeg Albert was working as a railway car foreman.

Albert enlisted on 15 January 1918 in Winnipeg. On attestation his date and place of birth were given as 28 January 1885 in Lincolnshire in England, occupation as railway mechanic, and his wife Emma in Winnipeg as next of kin. With a Railway Construction Troops Draft, Albert arrived in England aboard the Cretic on 4 March 1918 and first taken on strength with the Canadian Railway Troops Depot, rank of Acting Sergeant. A short time later Albert was transferred to the No 69 (Canadian) Wagon Erecting Company. Organized in October 1917 as No 3 Section, Skilled Railway Employees, the unit was redesignated as No 69 (Canadian) Wagon Erecting Company on 16 March 1918 and arrived in France on 10 April 1918. By June Albert was appointed Acting Company Sergeant Major, reverting to rank of Sergeant that September and then promoted to Company Quartermaster Sergeant the same day. In mid December Albert was admitted to the No 35 General Hospital in Calais suffering from a gastric ulcer. He was invalided to England and admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich on the 29th. In early January of 1919 Albert was transferred to the Military Convalescent Hospital Woodcote Park, discharged on the 14th. The same day he was admitted to the Manor War Hospital in Epsom with influenza, transferred to the No 16 Canadian General Hospital in Orpington in early February. By mid March Albert was on his way back to Canada, embarking on 23 March aboard the Empress of Britain. He was discharged from service on demobilization on 4 April 1919 in Winnipeg, rank of Company Sergeant Major.

Albert’s brother Percy enlisted in Emo with the 141st Battalion in January of 1916. In late May he attended a bombing throwing school of instruction and was granted a farm furlough in mid July to early August. However found to have a duodenal ulcer, he was discharged from service as medically unfit in February of 1917 in Port Arthur, Ontario.

After the war Albert, Emma, and the children lived in Winnipeg for awhile but by the time of the 1921 Canada census they had relocated to the municipality of Chapple in the township of Barwick near Rainy River to farm. Two more children were born, Stanley Lawrence (1920) and Bernice Mary (1923). First working for the Shevlin-Clarke Company Limited, Canada’s largest pine sawmill in nearby Fort Frances that operated from 1911 to 1940, at some point after its closure Albert moved to Marquette, Michigan to work for the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, to do personal representation work in company and employee labour relations for the American Federation of Labour, Indianapolis. His marriage having failed, when Albert signed his WW2 Draft registration card in 1942 in Marquette, he gave Miss Corinne Goodnight of Marquette as the person who would always know his address. Born on 17 January 1901 in Butte, Montana, Corinne was the daughter of Thomas Goodnight and Susannah Cook. In 1927 she had married 91 year old distant cousin Colonel Charles Goodnight, a wealthy Texan rancher. A marriage record was not found for Albert and Corinne although she assumed the Locking surname and they lived as man and wife.

Albert died on 16 December 1954 in St Luke’s Hospital in Marquette. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Corinne, former wife Emma, daughters Margaret (Ernest) Lichtenstein, Irene (WT) Hopper, Winnifred (M) Gillet, and Bernice, and sons John and Stanley. Also surviving were eleven grandchildren and sisters Myrtle (David) Muckle and Grace (M) Johnson. Albert was predeceased by his young sister Mary, brother Percy (1917), stepfather John Locking (1928), and mother Annie (1933), all in Emo. Corinne later died in Marquette on 20 July 1971 and is interred in the Park City Cemetery, Park City, Montana. Albert’s sister Myrtle died in 1973 in Calgary and Grace in 1981 in Rainy River. His first wife Emma died on 12 October 1967 in Fort Frances and along with Albert she is interred in the Riverview Cemetery in Fort Frances, Ontario.

By Judy Stockham

Albert’s newspaper articles provided by the Fort Frances Museum and the Marquette Peter White Public Library.
Emma’s obituary provided by the Thunder Bay Public Library.
Corinne’s grave marker photograph by A Marine’s Daughter, findagrave.com


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