Henry Allen Wishart was born on 11 May 1889 at his father’s farm in the colony of Elm River near Portage la Prairie. He was the eldest son of Peter Henry Wishart, and his wife, Harriet (née Spence.) Usually known as ‘Harry’, as soon as he was old enough he found work labouring around the district in the various townships.

By 1918, young Harry was living in Manitoba’s Ochre River area and employed as a farmer and fisherman. On 2 April, he was drafted into the Canadian Army at Winnipeg and taken on strength of the 1st Depot Battalion of the Manitoba Regiment. Despite possessing quite poor eyesight, Harry was categorised in a medical examination as being A2 fitness and joined his unit at the Minto Street Barracks, where he was based for the rest of the war. On 31 December 1918, having attained the rank of lance corporal, he was discharged from duty on an SOS for ‘Harvest Leave’.

On 1 June 1920, Harry married an English girl named Kathleen Margaret Payne. At the time of the marriage, Kathleen was only sixteen-years-old and had emigrated to Canada from her native Sussex with her parents when she was still an infant. By 1921 Harry was working his own farm in Ochre River and during 1932 he became father to a son. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Springfield, near Winnipeg, to care for Kathleen’s parents. Harry initially found work as an oiler and then eventually an engineer. The couple liked to travel and spending time in the great outdoors and by 1963 were living on Montrose Avenue in Winnipeg.

Harry died at the Concordia Hospital after a long illness on 23 July 1976 aged 87 years, and is interred at the Turtle River Cemetery.

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