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These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.
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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 »
Ordinary Seaman Fred Houghton joined the Naval Service in October 1917 and served in Canada for four months. He survived the horrific explosion in Halifax harbour on 6 December and he was discharged in February 1918. George Wilfred Houghton, known as Fred, was the son of John Houghton and Sarah Elizabeth Guest. John and Sarah… Read More »
Alexander McEachran Brown was known as ‘Sandy’ to a host of friends in Kenora. He was born on February 8 in either 1867 (as in his obituary and on his tombstone) or 1876 (as recorded on his attestation papers). Many men, younger or older didn’t give their true age for ‘fear’ of being rejected to… Read More »
Joseph Cooke was born on 26 March 1887 in Sandwith, Cumberland, England. His father Samuel Cooke, a coal miner, and mother Sarah Bell married on 28 November 1874 in the parish of St Bees, Cumberland. It appears that Sarah already had a son at the time of the marriage, John Bell who was born in… Read More »
Corporal Charles Hallam enlisted in Victoria, British Columbia in December 1914. He served in France and Belgium for more than three years and returned to Canada in March 1919. Charles was the son of William Hallam and Cecillia McNabb of Armstrong, British Columbia. Cecillia was born in Ontario to Scottish immigrant parents. William was born… Read More »
William Henry Figsby was one of the men to answer the first call for volunteers when the Great War began in August 1914. Along with 43 other Kenora and Keewatin men, Figsby stepped forward when the local militia unit, the 98th Regiment, was given a directive to raise a local group of men for the… Read More »
Charles was one of those recruits who faked his birth date when he enlisted for the Canadian army but unlike most recruits who fibbed about their ages, he took three years off his life instead of adding them on. He was 37 at the time. The army’s age limits were 18 years to 45 years… Read More »
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 »
Albert Ernest Jefford was born on 16 October 1891 in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, England. His parents were Ernest Jefford, an agricultural labourer, and Lydia Ann Brown. Siblings included: Lydia (b. 1882; married William Webb), Edith (b. 1884; married John Haggett), Alice Matilda (b. 1887), James William (b. 1897; served in WW1) and Dorothy May (b…. Read More »
Major Charles James Dancer enlisted in October 1914 and served in Canada, the UK and France for more than four and a half years, most of that time with the Canadian Army Service Corps. He returned to Canada in July 1919. Charles was the oldest son of Charles Henry Dancer and Emma Pilling of Winnipeg,… Read More »
