April 2018
Monthly Archive
April 30, 2018
On this day in 1918 Peter Powless was conscripted in Toronto. He was born in Tyendinaga on October 22nd, 1886, the son of Isaac Powless and Lydia (née Penn), who were Mohawks. When he was drafted he was living in New Toronto. He joined the 2nd Depot Battalion of the 1st Central Ontario Regiment with the regimental number 3234069. He was described as five feet five and a half inches tall, with a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. His service record shows that he was discharged on May 21st, 1918 as having been “erroneously ordered to report” (Indigenous men were exempt from conscription under the Military Service Act).
At the time of the 1921 census, Peter was living in Whitney, near Porcupine, to the east of Timmins in Northern Ontario.
April 29, 2018
Edgar Patrick Le Blanc died in Belleville General Hospital on this day in 1918. He was a cadet in the Royal Flying Corps, which he had joined on December 5th, 1917 in Toronto. He was the son of Patrick and Emma Le Blanc of Moncton, New Brunswick and had previously served in the Royal School of Infantry, Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Royal Air Force
report of the accident stated:
…Date of Casualty: 29.4.18
Where occurred: Canada ⅛ mile Sth of Camp Mohawk Aerodrome
Type of Machine: Curtiss J.N.4 C1001
Nature and Cause of Accident: Failing to get out of spin
Result of Accident: Injured Frac skull Broken jaw Broken collar bone
Name of other Occupant of Machine: 2nd Lt. [Edwin Henry] Menhenitt injured
Belleville’s newspaper, the Intelligencer reported the accident:
Aeroplane Crashed to Earth in Spinning Nose Dive
—–
Young Aviator Dead and Comrade Seriously Injured, Result of Accident at Camp Mohawk Yesterday Afternoon – Both Aviators Brought to Belleville Hospital
Between the hours of two and three o’clock yesterday afternoon, an aeroplane fell just east of Camp Mohawk airdrome with fatal results. Cadet Edward P. Le Blanc and Instructor Secon Lieut. E. H. Menhennit were in the machine at the time and were at a considerable height when it was observed that something was wrong as the plane began falling to the earth, nose first, in a rapid manner. The ambulance from the camp was summoned and soon reached the place where the machine had fallen. The two occupants were found to be terribly injured and as soon as possible were brought to the Belleville hospital for treatment. Shortly after being admitted to the hospital Le Blanc succumbed to his injuries, and for hours Menhennit remained in an unconscious condition. The injuries which caused le Blanc’s death consisted of a fractured skull. His face was also injured. Menhennit was severely cut about the head and face and there is a compound fracture to the right leg. The aeroplane was virtually broken to pieces.
The body of Cadet Le Blanc was subsequently taken to Tickell & Sons undertaking establishment where it was prepared for burial. The unfortunate young aviator was a member of the 8th Squadron, R.A.F. His home was at 97 Alma Street, Moncton, N.B. where his mother resides. She was notified of the sad affair and it is expected that she will come to Belleville and take the body home for interment.
Lieut. Menhennit is an Englishman and the next of kin is his brother, Mr. J. D. Menhennitt, Eastleigh, St. Malyn [Mabyn], Cornwall, England. This morning his condition showed slight improvement, but he is by no means out of danger.
Le Blanc was buried in St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Moncton.
Lieutenant Menhenitt recovered from his injuries and stayed in Canada after the war. He married Lois Elizabeth Vance on June 2nd, 1920 in Barrie, where he was working as an engineer.
April 26, 2018
Herbert Edgar Wicks died in France on this day in 1918. He was serving with the 44th Battalion, which was involved in a raid on enemy lines at Marœuil on the night of April 26th/27th in which two men were killed. This action was described in the Battalion’s war diary (page 1 and page 2).
Wicks was buried at the Roclincourt Military Cemetery.
Grave of Herbert Edgar Wicks, courtesy of findagrave.com
He is also remembered on the Deseronto war memorial.
And on the cenotaph in Napanee.
April 26, 2018
On this day in 1918, Jack Burman, an electrician, died in Toronto of pneumonia. He was born in Leicester, England in July 1901, the son of William Arthur Burman, a railway worker, and Lucy (née Bartlett). He was baptised in Brackley, Northamptonshire on September 1st, 1901. William left England for Canada in 1905, with Lucy and Jack following in 1906.
Burman joined the Royal Flying Corps in Toronto on May 1st 1917 and served as an air mechanic with the Deseronto Wing. His regimental number was 71808. He was five feet four and a half inches tall and claimed to be 18 when he enlisted, although he was 15 at the time. The family were living at 277 Ashdale Avenue, Toronto. Burman was 16 when he died at the base hospital in Toronto.
Jack was buried in the St. John’s Norway Cemetery in Toronto.
April 25, 2018
On this day in 1918 Victor Raymond Evans, a cadet in the Royal Flying Corps, was killed at Camp Mohawk, the pilot training camp near Deseronto. He was born in Bradford, Ontario, on October 18th, 1896, the son of William Evans and Martha (née Neilly).Victor signed up in Toronto on November 14th, 1917 and was accepted into the Royal Flying Corps on December 10th. His regimental number was 153475. He was five feet five and a quarter inches tall. Evans was serving with 79 Canadian Training Squadron at the time of his death. The
official Royal Air Force report noted the following facts about the accident which killed him:
…Date of Casualty: 24.4.18
Where occurred: Canada Camp Mohawk
Type of Machine: Curtiss J.N.4 C477
Nature and Cause of Accident: Struck on head by propellor while getting out of front of machine
Result of Accident: Killed
Name of other Occupant of Machine: 2nd Lt. J. I. [John Inglis] Bedingfield uninjured
The Court of Inquiry verdict was:
Detail from Attorney General’s 1918 file RG4-32/1152 at the Archives of Ontario
The Cause of the accident was in our opinion that Cadet Evans V.R. No. 153475 whilst on duty at Camp Mohawk, Deseronto, on 25th April, 1918, about 11 o’clock a.m., after having come down from an instructional flight under 2/Lieut. J.I. Bedingfield in Machine C-477, got out of the front seat of the machine contrary to instructions, and walked into the propellor.
Victor was buried in Bayfield Cemetery, Ontario.
April 25, 2018
William Wesley Quackenbush, a brakeman, signed up in Montreal on this day in 1918. He was born in Deseronto in October 1891 (the birth registration says on October 3rd, he stated October 10th when he enlisted). His parents were Edley Alexander Quackenbush and Ida (née Lewis). His father died in 1896 and his mother married Edward Badgley in 1897. In 1910 Wesley and his brother Bernard were living with their uncle, Goldie Lewis and his wife Ruby, in Sandy Creek, New York. He gave his mother’s address as 2 Waite Avenue, Watertown, New York when he enlisted.
Quackenbush joined the 1st Depot Battalion of the 1st Quebec Regiment with the regimental number 3083937. He was five feet tall, with a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair. His service record shows that he arrived in England on the SS Oxfordshire on July 15th, 1918. He was admitted to hospital for a month in Bramshott on October 17th, suffering from influenza. The following May, he was in hospital again, in Ripon, with tuberculosis. On July 12th, 1919 he was invalided home to Canada and spent a month in hospital in Montreal with chronic bronchitis from July 22nd.
Wesley was demobilized in Montreal on August 25th, 1919. He married Mina White in 1927. There is more information about him and his brother Bernard on the Litchfield family tree. He died in Watertown, New York on June 10th, 1981.
April 24, 2018
Frederick George L’Esperance, a munitions worker, signed up in Kingston on this day in 1918. He was born in Deseronto on October 22nd, 1898, the son of George L’Esperance and Georgina (née Beyette). In 1901 the family were in Deseronto, but they had moved to Trenton by 1911 and were living there when Frederick enlisted.
L’Esperance joined the 1st Depot Battalion of the Eastern Ontario Regiment with the regimental number 3057913. He was five feet seven and a half inches tall, with a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. He was transferred to the Canadian Field Artillery in Kingston on November 1st, 1918 and demobilized there on November 30th.
In the 1921 census he was back in Trenton with his family, living in Ferry Street and working as a labourer. He married Albina Bernard on February 11th, 1926 in Trenton. By that time, he was a plumber and he gave his address as Detroit, Michigan.
April 19, 2018
On this day in 1918 Frank Clinton Kimmerly, an assistant purchasing agent, was conscripted in Toronto. He claimed to have been born in Deseronto on April 5th, 1888, but his birth was registered as May 15th, 1880. His parents were James Kimmerly and Martha (née Dafoe). The family were still in Deseronto at the time of the 1901 census, but they were living in St. Catharines when he was drafted into the 1st Depot Battalion of the 1st Central Ontario Regiment with the regimental number 3035201.
Frank was five feet five and three quarter inches tall, with a medium complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. He was single when he was conscripted, but got married a few weeks later, on May 13th, to Mina Winnifred Earl in Toronto. His service record shows that he left Canada on the SS Pannonia on June 5th, arriving in England on the 28th. He served in England with the Canadian Artillery Regimental Depot until September 1919, when he returned to Canada on the SS Regina, arriving on September 19th. He had been promoted to the rank of sergeant in April 1919.
Frank and Mina moved to the United States and were living in New York City with their two children in 1925 and 1930. Frank died in Kingston, Ontario on August 8th, 1955.
April 16, 2018
On this day in 1918 Robert Bertram Richardson, a miller, was conscripted in Kingston. He was born in Deseronto on April 10th, 1887, the son of Reuben Richardson and Eliza (née Robertson). In 1901 the family were in Tweed, but they were back in Deseronto when Bertram joined the army.
Richardson joined the 1st Depot Battalion of the Eastern Ontario Regiment with the regimental number 3057759. He was five feet two inches tall, with a ruddy complexion, brown eyes and brown hair. He was missing the first joint of his left index finger. His service record shows that he arrived in England on July 7th, 1918 on the SS Waimana and served in England for the remainder of the war. He suffered from bronchitis while in England and was invalided back to Canada in August 1919. He was demobilized on August 14th in Kingston.
Bertram died on October 12th, 1971 and was buried in Deseronto Cemetery.
April 16, 2018
Roy Edgar Pelton died of cavernous sinus thrombosis in Toronto General Hospital on this day in 1918 (although some sources say he died on April 15th). Pelton was serving as a cadet with the Royal Flying Corps’ 42nd Wing, based in Deseronto. He had originally enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Vancouver on January 25th, 1917 and had served in the Canadian Army Service Corps for eight months with the regimental number 200223. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in Winnipeg on November 13th, 1917 (number 153779) and was officially appointed to Corps on January 13th, 1918 in Toronto. He was five feet four and a half inches tall, with a dark complexion, black hair and blue eyes.
He would have spent the winter training in Texas with the rest of 42nd Wing, and must have fallen ill on his return to Ontario in April 1918: his death registration notes that he had been ill for two weeks. Initially his death was recorded on his Royal Flying Corps record as a flying accident in Texas. This was later crossed out and replaced with the correct information.
Roy was born in Grandview, Manitoba on July 10th, 1896 (other sources say October 7th), the son of Hiram Whitney Pelton and Edith Abigail (née Powell). Between 1901 and 1911 the family moved from Manitoba to British Columbia: Pelton gave his home address as 833 Pacific Street, Vancouver.
Pelton was buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver.
Cadet Pelton’s headstone, courtesy of SusanR at Find a Grave
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