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These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.
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Raymond Robert Nairn Nicholson, known as Robin, was one of four children of Murdoch and Catherine (Kitty) Nicholson. The Nicholsons had come to Rat Portage in the 1880s from P.E.I. In Rat Portage Murdoch opened a shop as a merchant tailor. Their first son, Alfred Samuel, born in 1887, died of pneumonia in 1902. Daughter… Read More »
According to his attestation papers Ralph Harris was born on 14 February 1876 in London, England. A birth record was not found. Using the name of Roland Ralph McClude, Ralph married Lydia Collier during the 3rd quarter of 1893 in the registration district of Clutton in Somerset. Lydia, the daughter of William and Charlotte (née… Read More »
Laurence Sinclair Nicolson was born on 22 April 1888 in Setter, Sandwick Parish, Shetland Islands, Scotland as confirmed by his birth record. His father John Nicolson, a fisherman, was from Hoswick while his mother Margaret Sinclair was from Setter where the couple married on 16 December 1875. Laurence had two known siblings, Davina (1877) and… Read More »
Although he gave his birth date as 2 May 1897 on his attestation papers, James Thomas Alphonse Dubord was born on 7 February 1900 in Rat Portage (later named Kenora), Ontario. His father Jean Baptiste Alphonse Dubord had been born in Trois Rivieres, Quebec, the son of Joseph and Marie Louise Hedwige (Hamelin) Dubord. By the… Read More »
Murdoch McLellan was one of many recent immigrants to enlist for service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the Great War. Murdoch, born in Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland in 1894, came to Canada in the spring of 1913 to settle in Keewatin, Ontario where his mother Mary’s brother, James Dempster, had settled several years earlier along… Read More »
Stuart Ross Scott was the youngest son of William Walter Scott and Laura Felicia Anley of Kenora, Ontario. William was from Berwick, Finch Township, Ontario and Laura was born in Trenton, Nova Scotia. They were married in Winnipeg in 1891 and they settled in Norman/Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora), where William worked in the lumber… Read More »
Sapper William Lavigne was living in the Nelson area in British Columbia when he enlisted on 6 September 1916. According to his attestation paper he was born on 27 January 1876 in Kenora, Ontario, although it’s very unlikely he was actually born there. His death registration records his birth as 19 February 1877 in Ontario… Read More »
Robert was registered later as born in Barrie, Ontario. This late registration took place in 1954. When filling out his attestation paper, Robert perhaps thought that he was born in Byng (Big) Inlet or Barrie was the city to register births for Byng Inlet. His father worked at the sawmill in Byng Inlet at… Read More »
Private Martin Jorgenson was one of five brothers who enlisted for service in the First World War. The five boys – Jacob, Martin, John, Gustave and Thomas – came from a large family in Whitemouth, Manitoba. Martin was killed in France in June 1917 but his four brothers survived and returned home after the war…. Read More »
According to his attestation papers, Robert George Laurenson was born on 14 June 1899 in Kenora, Ontario although at the time it was known as Rat Portage. His mother was Catherine Laurenson, daughter of Robert and Eliza (Perrault) Laurenson. Robert and his two older siblings William and Barbara lived with their mother and grandparents for… Read More »
