Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthApril 18, 1897
Place of BirthWatford, Hertfordshire
CountryEngland
Marital StatusMarried
Next of KinJane Ross Milton (wife), 704 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario
Trade / CallingClerk
ReligionBaptist
Service Details
Regimental NumberN/A
Service RecordLink to Service Record
Battalion122nd Battalion
ForceCanadian Expeditionary Force
BranchCanadian Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedEnlisted
Place of EnlistmentHuntsville, Ontario
Address at EnlistmentGalt, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentDecember 8, 1915
Age at Enlistment18
Theatre of ServiceEurope
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathSeptember 19, 1975
Age at Death78
Buried AtLake of the Woods Cemetery, Kenora, Ontario
Plot19E-3-3

Milton, Charles Henry

Captain Charles Henry Milton enlisted in 1915 and arrived in France in June 1917. He served with the Canadian Forestry Corps and returned to Canada in May 1919.

Charles was born on 18 April 1897 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. His parents were Charles Henry Milton Sr. and Mary Elizabeth Humphreyson. Charles Sr. was born in London and Mary in Staffordshire. They were married in 1896 in Gravesend, Kent and Charles was born in Watford the following year. By the time the 1901 census was taken the family had moved to Teddington in Middlesex county, where Charles’ father was employed as a grocer’s manager.

In the spring of 1906 Charles Sr. immigrated to Canada and settled in Toronto. Charles and his mother followed a few months later, arriving in Montreal on 6 October on the Lake Manitoba. A second son, Frederick Francis, was born in 1909. The war started in August 1914 and Charles enlisted about a year later, on 8 December 1915. He had already served with the 35th Regiment, a Toronto-based unit, and he was commissioned as a Captain in the 122nd (Muskoka) Battalion. He signed up in Huntsville and listed his address as Galt and his occupation as clerk. He trained in Canada for about 14 months.

Charles was married in Toronto on 8 February 1917. His wife, Jane Ross Kribbs, was born in April 1892 in Grand Valley, Ontario. Her parents were Harry Ross Kribbs and Mary Zylpha Bird and she had at least five brothers and one sister. Her two oldest brothers, Thomas and Norman, both enlisted and served overseas. At the time she was married Jane was living in Galt and working as a clerk but she moved to Toronto within a few months. Charles was sent to England with his unit that summer, embarking from Halifax on 2 June 1917 and arriving in Liverpool about a week later. When they arrived the 122nd Battalion was absorbed into the Canadian Forestry Corps Depot, based at Sunningdale. About two weeks later Charles was assigned to No. 43 Company, Canadian Forestry Corps, and sent to France, where he reverted to the rank of Lieutenant. He served with No. 43 Company for the next 18 months.

In January 1919 Charles was transferred to No. 42 Company and two months later he returned to the UK. He was assigned to the 13th Reserve Battalion and he spent another two months in England. He sailed from Liverpool on the SS Minnekahda on 14 May and arrived in Halifax nine days later. He was discharged from the army on 25 May in Toronto.

After the war Charles and his wife lived in the Timmins area in northern Ontario. When the 1921 census was taken they were in the village of Tisdale and Chalres was employed as an engineer at a mill. His parents and brother Francis were living in the nearby community of Swastika. His father was a travelling salesman and Francis a student. Sadly, Charles’ wife died in Wellesley Hospital in Toronto in June 1923, at age 31, due to complications of pregnancy. She’s buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery along with her only sister Mildred (1897-1959) (wife of Dr. Harry Ray Bulmer).

Charles became a mining engineer and continued to live in northern Ontario. He was married again in London, Ontario on 14 August 1930. His second wife, Alice Alexandra Macleod, was a nurse. She was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia on 10 May 1902, the daughter of James Alexander Macleod and Isabel McGlashen. She took her nurse’s training in London, Ontario. Charles and Alice had a son, James, and a daughter, Sandra, who became a nurse like her mother. In 1947 Charles moved to Kenora, Ontario to work as the manager of J.W.N. Bell Laboratories. His wife and children joined him there a few months later. Charles became a member of the Canadian Legion, Kenora branch, and a local Masonic Lodge. His wife was active in the women’s hospital auxiliary and Knox United Church.

Alice passed away in the Kenora General Hospital on 14 October 1967, at age 65. Charles retired around that time and later moved to Winnipeg, where his daughter lived. He died at the Grace Hospital on 19 September 1975, at age 78. Charles and Alice are both buried in Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora.

By Becky Johnson


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