Kenora Great War Project

 

Personal Details
Date of BirthJune 1, 1895
Place of BirthBrownville Junction, Maine
CountryU.S.A.
Marital StatusSingle
Next of KinArthur and Mabel Mansfield (parents), Port Arthur, Ontario
Trade / CallingRailway telegraph operator
Service Details
Regimental Number1692141
Battalion301st Field Signal Battalion
ForceAmerican Expeditionary Forces
BranchUS Infantry
Enlisted / ConscriptedConscripted
Address at EnlistmentPort Arthur, Ontario
Date of EnlistmentMay 28, 1918
Age at Enlistment23
Theatre of ServiceFrance
Prisoner of WarNo
Survived WarYes
Death Details
Date of DeathJune 6, 1982
Age at Death87
Buried AtSt. Vital Cemetery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Plot05-1502-0

Mansfield, Paul Burrill

Paul Burrill Mansfield was the younger son of Arthur Holmes Mansfield and Mabel Ida Smart. Mabel was born in Maine and Arthur in Vermont. They were married in 1893 and their first child, Charles Smart, was born in Brownville Junction, Maine in 1894. Paul followed on 1 June 1895, also in Brownville Junction. There were also two daughters: Pauline (1898) and Maude Lillian (1901). Around 1904 the family moved to Canada and settled in the town of Kenora in northwestern Ontario. Arthur was a telegrapher and dispatcher and he found work with the Canadian Pacific Railway. They were still in Kenora for the 1911 census but within a few years the family had moved to Port Arthur.

Charles enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in March 1917, when the war was in its third year. He served in France and the UK and returned home in May 1919. The U.S. entered the war in April 1917 and Paul completed his American draft card on 2 June. He was living in Port Arthur by then and his occupation was railway telegraph operator. He was single and 22 years old. He was called up for service a year later and assigned to Company C, 301st Field Signal Battalion in the 76th Infantry Division. He sailed from Montreal on 11 July 1918 on the SS Durham Castle and served for ten months in France, including Marbache and Moselle. His rank was Private First Class. Paul returned to the U.S. in May 1919, embarking from Brest on 16 May on the SS North Carolina and arriving in Boston near the end of the month. He was honorably discharged on demobilization on 2 June.

Paul was married in Port Arthur on 1 March 1920. His wife, Mabel Grace Zest, was born on 16 October 1900 in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the daughter of Alexander Zest and Cecilia Lauzon. Like his father and brother, Paul had a long career with the railway. He and his wife lived in Beaudette, Minnesota from 1921-1922. Sometime after that they settled in the community of Kashabowie, northwest of Port Arthur, where they lived until at least 1930. Sadly they lost an infant daughter, Cecilia Blossom, in 1926 and a two-year-old son, Paul “Donnie” Donald, in 1930. No other children are mentioned in family obituaries.

By 1954 Paul and Grace had moved to Swan River, Manitoba then a few years later to Flin Flon. When Paul retired from the CNR in 1961 they settled in Winnipeg. He passed away at the Health Sciences Centre on 6 June 1982, at age 87. Grace died on 15 February 1999, at age 98. They are both buried in St. Vital Cemetery in Winnipeg.

By Becky Johnson

Gravemarker photo courtesy of findagrave.com.


« Back To Soldier Biographies