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These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.
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Robert Stewart Emerson was born on 27 November 1886 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His parents Robert Wellington Emerson and Catherine (Kate) Wilson Martin married on 3 March 1882 in the RM of St Andrews, Manitoba. Kate’s family had been farming just outside of Rat Portage and the newlyweds were to make Rat… Read More »
During the First World War about 3,800 Canadian soldiers became German prisoners of war. Lance Corporal James Howard Percy was sent to France in May 1916 and he was taken as a prisoner of war on 3 May 1917. He died a few days later in a German hospital. Howard was the oldest son of… Read More »
Private William James Heather enlisted in the fall of 1917 and served for almost two years in Canada, most of that time with a garrison regiment. James was 33 years old and living in South Dakota when he decided to enlist with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He applied at a recruiting office in Denver, Colorado… Read More »
The Battle of the Somme was a five-month long offensive that began in July 1916. The Canadian Corps arrived at the Somme in late August and in less than three months they suffered 24,000 casualties. One of the fallen was Private John McKechnie Francis of Kenora, Ontario. John was born on 20 November 1864 in… Read More »
Thomas Breedon Elliott was born on 20 May 1878 in Smeeton Westerly, Leicestershire, England. His father Jonas Breedon Elliott was from Leicester while his mother Caroline Burnaby was from the Pipewell-Rushton area in Northamptonshire where the couple had married in the first quarter of 1875. Thomas had an older sister, Florence (1876) and younger brother… Read More »
Private Frederick Thomas Mackie was born on 25 August 1875 in the Township of Inverness, Mégantic County, Quebec. His father, Dr. John R. Mackie, a physician, and his mother, Jane Elizabeth Borland, were both born in Quebec. Fred had at least three older siblings: Edith Anna, Arthur Edward and William Burton. Fred was baptized at… Read More »
According to his baptism record, Walter John (Jack) McDonald was born on 19 November 1896 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), Ontario. His father Duncan Alexander McDonald was from Ontario while his mother Mary Elizabeth Kerr was from Scotland, the couple marrying on 21 October 1886 in East Selkirk, Manitoba. By the time of the… Read More »
Private George William Tennant was the son of George Tennant Sr. and Catherine (Kate) Margaret Lambert. George Sr. and Kate had at least five other children: Herbert Maxwell (1889), Francis Lambert (1892), Janet Louisa (1894), Charlotte Mary (1900) and Roland Judd Murray (1904). Most of the children were born in Port Arthur, Ontario but George… Read More »
Edward Andrew Myles was the fourth of six children born to Leith Myles and Mary Rathwell in Sudbury, Ontario on 22 December 1894. The family moved to Rat Portage (Kenora), Ontario in 1898. Edward, known as ‘Pat’ to his family and friends, received his education in Kenora. He joined the CPR in 1912 and worked… Read More »
Henry Edward Hannon was born on 1 August 1892, the only son of Henry and Kathleen Hannon of Ardreigh House, Athy, County Kildare, Ireland. He attended Trinity House School and latterly Avnon School in Dublin before leaving Ireland. According to the DuRuviny’s Roll of Honour, he first worked in Avonlea, Saskatchewan as a ledger keeper… Read More »
