Kenora Great War Project

 

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The People

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These are the stories of Kenora participants in the First World War.

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McKinnon, John David

John David McKinnon was born on 24 September 1897 in Rat Portage (later renamed Kenora) in northwestern Ontario. His father Angus Hugh McKinnon was from the Lochiel area of Glengarry in Ontario while his mother Catherine Jane McRae was from Roxborough, Ontario. Although he had been living in Rat Portage and working as a general… Read More »

Dyer, Francis Joseph

Francis Joseph Dyer was born on 03 June 1876 in West Cowes (Isles of Wight), Hampshire, England. His parents were Albert Dyer and Harriett Mary Turner. Francis spent his childhood on the Isle of Wight and went to sea at age 11. He earned his masters papers in sail in 1898 and was master of… Read More »

Lavigne, William

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 »

Coppard, William

Private William Coppard was one of three brothers who served in the First World War. He was wounded twice but he survived the war and returned to Canada in January 1919. William was born on 9 September 1897 in Rat Portage (later called Kenora) in northwestern Ontario, the youngest son of Henry Coppard and Maria… Read More »

Nohlgren, Frederick Helge

Corporal Frederick Helge Nohlgren was born on 17 March 1894 in Texas. His parents, Axel Nohlgren and Sophia Larson, had both emigrated from Sweden. When he was still a baby they moved to Canada and settled in North Norfolk, Manitoba. Seven more children were born there: Nellie, Axel, Olga, Anna, Oscar, Edith and Nelson. Anna… Read More »

Starr, Arthur

Arthur Starr was born on 13 December 1886 in Bingley, Yorkshire, England. He immigrated to Canada in April 1911 listing ‘engineer’ as his occupation. Arthur started service with the Canadian Pacific Railway in Portage la Prairie as a wiper. By 1912 he had moved to Kenora, Ontario and was working as a fireman with the… Read More »

Wills, Benjamin

Benjamin was born to Joseph Wills and Beatrice King  on 11 December 1890, in the Cornwall district of England. In the 1901 English census he  was living with his mother and sisters Minnie (4 years older), Lillie (two years younger) and Olive (8 years younger). He was in Canada when he enlisted as an expat,… Read More »

Brock, Earl Meadows

Driver Earl Meadows Brock enlisted at age 18 and served in Canada and the UK for just over a year, most of that time with the Canadian Field Artillery. Earl was the son of Robert Meadows Brock and Agnes McKechnie Francis of Kenora, Ontario. Agnes came from a large family in Stirlingshire, Scotland and she… Read More »

Marr, Henry Ernest (Harry)

Private Harry Marr answered the call to serve shortly after the war was declared. Less than two months in Belgium, he was seriously wounded and survived against all odds. Henry Ernest (Harry) Marr was born on 18 April 1894 in Chester-le-Street, Durham, England. His father Henry Marr, a railway booking clerk, was from Manchester, England… Read More »

Desilet, Joseph Octave

Joseph Octave Desilet was born on 23 July 1888 in St Theodore de Chertsy, Montcalm, Quebec, date confirmed by his baptism record. His father Israel Desilet was from Joliette in Quebec while his mother Marie Leontine Perrault was from St Theodore where the couple married on 27 July 1886. At the time of the marriage… Read More »