Cenotaph Stories

Norman Irwin

Norman Irwin was born 2 January 1893 in Peterborough ON, as shown on his birth registration, although his attestation papers show 1892. His parents, John and Mary Ann, had 6 children in total with Norman being the youngest son. After Norman’s father passed away sometime before 1908, Mary Ann remarried George Curtain, who would lose his own son to the war in May 1917. In 1912 Norman married Rosella Kent of Lindsay ON and in 1913 they had a son, John Joseph. After the war, Rosella and John are shown on the census living with her parents in Lindsay ON.

On 16 October 1915, Norman enlisted in Haileybury ON with the 25th Reserve Battalion, and was attached to the 2nd Canadian Pioneer Battalion.

After landing in France on 8 March 1916, Norman was promoted to Lance Corp in February 1917. He was seriously wounded by shrapnel on 26 May 1917 at Vimy Ridge and was sent to England to recuperate, and then wounded again by a gunshot wound to his knee in December 1917. Over the next few months he contracted influenza, then pneumonia, and died on 22 Oct 1918 in Dornach, Sutherlandshire in the Scottish highlands.

Norman Irwin is buried in Dornoch East Cemetery, Sutherland, Scotland. He was 26 years old.