Born on 18 June 1889 in the St. Clement district of Dundee, Alfred John Wishart was the fourth of five children of John Burdett Wishart and his wife Isabella (Joss.) The family lived at 43 Rosebank Street, and young Fred (as he was more commonly known) was not a well child to the extent that in 1907 when he was eighteen, he emigrated to Canada for health reasons (his granddaughter later stated that he had suffered from tuberculosis.)

Initially working as a farm hand in Ontario, Alfred made his way west to Manitoba where he settled in Winnipeg about 1911. The following year he married Maud Haines with three children (two boys and a girl) subsequently being born of the marriage.

By 1915 the family were living at 771 Toronto Street, in Winnipeg and Alfred had secured work as a moving picture operator. He enlisted in the military on 2 November of that year and joined the 90th Battalion (Winnipeg Rifles.) Unfortunately no further details of Alfred’s war service are known; however, he may have embarked for Great Britain with his unit on 31 May 1916.

After the war, Alfred returned to working as a projectionist at the Capitol Theatre and became a member of the Tuscan Lodge. During WW2 he served as a sergeant major in the non-active militia and later in life he eventually lost his sight.

In 1959 Alfred and Maude moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where he died at the Veterans Hospital on 10 May 1966. He was the brother of Alexander Joss Wishart and Edward James Joss Wishart.

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