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Joseph Robert Janes was born in Toronto in 1935, middle son of Henry Franklin Janes, a pioneer in public relations, and his wife Phyllis Hipwell, an artist. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1958 with a B.A.Sc. in Mining Engineering, his undergraduate thesis winning the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Award in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Division. After work as a petroleum engineer for Mobil Oil (1958-1959) and a research engineer for the Ontario Research Foundation (1959-1964), Janes return to the University of Toronto to study geology under J. Tuzo Wilson and to attend teacher’s college. He also taught high school mathematics, geology and geography for the North York Board of Education (1964-1966). Janes graduated with a M.Eng. in Geology in 1967. After further graduate studies in geology at McMaster University, he then lectured in geology at Brock University (1968-1970), conducting an innovative field course across Canada.

Thereafter, he completed the first year of a Ph.D. program at Queen’s University in association with Brock University but, in 1970, decided instead to become a full-time writer. His early work consisted of books and other media presentations on the topic of geology for grade-school children, senior high schools, universities and the general trade market. He also wrote travel and other articles and supplied photographs for newspapers and periodicals, often with a geological focus, and sold geological specimens to schools under the name Rocks and Minerals of Canada. He later turned to writing children's novels and, ultimately, mystery novels for the adult market. He is now world-renowned as the author of the St. Cyr-Kohler mystery series. He has received grants from the J.P. Bickell Foundation, the Canada Council, and the Ontario Arts Council. Janes has long been concerned with the environment and politics, especially in the area of his home in the Niagara Peninsula. He also has an interest in Stephen Leacock, a cousin of his paternal grandfather. J. Robert Janes and his wife Gracia (Lind) Janes have four children. Janes died on February 28, 2022.

Charles William Jefferys was born in England in 1869. He moved with his family to Canada around 1880. Jefferys had a long career as a newspaper, magazine and book illustrator. He also taught for many years in the Department of Architecture at the University of Toronto. His most well known work is the three-volume Picture Gallery of Canadian History (1942-1950). He died in 1951.

Charles Jeffrey (219016) served as a Lieutenant in the 44th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was killed in action in October 1917.

Jeffrey was born in Buffalo, New York, 4 December 1896 to Charles William and Laura Jeffrey. He also had a sister, Grace. The family relocated to Ottawa. Jeffrey was enrolled as a student at Queen’s University when he enlisted. He sailed to Europe in 1916. He was quickly promoted: first to Sergeant and then Lieutenant. He was shot by a sniper on the afternoon of 27 October 1917, while doing reconnaissance for an attack as part of the Battle of Passchendaele; he was 20 years old.

Born in Winnipeg on 10 March, 1942, Marvyne Jenoff graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1964. She also studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem and the Sheridan College School of Design. She taught English as a second language from 1960 to 1996.

Her books include No Lingering Peace (1972), Hollandsong (1975), New Poet's Handbook (1984), The Orphan and the Stranger (1985), The Emperor's Body (1995), Embracing Minutiae (2014), The Leg and I (2018), So Far: A Writing Life (2019), Climbing the Rain (2022), and The Truth and the Earring (2023). She was the Fiction Editor of Waves from 1980 to 1985 and was a regular contributor to Montage, a MENSA newsletter from 1995 to 1998. Her poems and fiction have appeared in a variety of Canadian magazines.

Located south of Warsaw, Otwock had a large Jewish community. The Nazis imposed a ghetto in Otwock in the fall of 1940. More than 12,000 Jews resided in the ghetto. Two thousand Jews died of hunger, and another 2,000 were shot during the ghetto’s liquidation in August 1942. Most of the remaining residents of the ghetto were sent to the Treblinka concentration camp. The fate of the people who wrote to H.D. Schwartz is not known.

E. Pauline Johnson, poet and platform entertainer, was born on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Canada West (Ontario). Her poems first appeared in the New York magazine, Gems of Poetry, and thereafter in numerous British and North American journals. Her books include The White Wampum (1895), Canadian Born (1903), Flint and Feather (1912), Legends of Vancouver (1911), The Shagganappi (1912), and The Moccasin Maker (1913). She died at Vancouver on 7 March 1913.

Samuel Johnson, the English author and lexicographer, was one of the leading scholars and critics of his day.

Basil H.Johnston, writer, was born in 1929 on Wasauksing First Nation (formerly Parry Island First Nation) located near Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation Band (formerly known as the “Cape Croker Band of Ojibwa”). He attended elementary school at the Cape Croker First Nations Reserve until the age of 10, after which he attended the Spanish Indian Residential School in Spanish, Ontario. He graduated in 1950 and attended Loyola College in Montreal, where he graduated with a B.A in 1954. From 1955 to 1961 Johnston was employed by the Toronto Board of Trade. He received his Secondary School Teaching Certificate from the Ontario College of Education in 1962. From 1962 to 1969 he taught history at Earl Haig Secondary School in North York. In 1969 he took a position as Ethnologist at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto where he lectured to public groups and colleges. He remained at the ROM until 1994 where he worked with a mandate to record and celebrate Ojibway (Anishinaube) heritage, especially language and mythology. Johnston had also lectured at many universities, including the University of Saskatchewan and Trent University.

Johnston was the author of 16 books published in Canada, the United States and Germany. His books included Indian School Days (1988) and Moose Meat and Wild Rice (1978). In 1978, Johnston wrote The Ojibway Language Course Outline and the Ojibway Language Lexicon for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. Johnston was a fluent speaker and teacher of the Anishinaube language who writes in both English and Anishinaabemowin. His writings appeared in many newspapers, anthologies and journals. In 1978 he was narrator and writer for the script of a film The Man, the Snake and the Fox for the National Film Board of Canada. In 1982 he established Winter Spirit Creations, an operation that has supplied Ojibway language print and audio programs to individuals, schools, colleges and universities in Canada and the United States. Johnston received the Order of Ontario in 1989 as well as Honorary Doctorates from the University of Toronto (1994) and Laurentian University (1998). In 2007 Johnston received the Aboriginal Achievement Award for Heritage and Spirituality. Johnston passed away on September 8, 2015.

Lily Edward Jones was a poet who lived in Hamilton, Ont. She published two books with local printers, Odd Echoes in 1929, and Woodland Songs in 1936. Both books are in Research Collections.

Jessie Sarah Graham was born in 1906. She married Elmore Joselin, and they lived in Scarborough, Toronto, where their daughter, Beverley was born. Jessie Joselin died in 1998.

During the Second World War, Mrs. Joselin volunteered with the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Women’s Auxiliary affiliated with Birch Cliff School in Scarborough. She led a group that made children’s clothing (especially layettes) for British families whose homes had been destroyed by German bombs. The effort continued after the war and was extended to French families.

Mrs. Joselin’s father was an art teacher in Toronto. One of his students, Bettina (‘Bun’) Somers, from England, befriended Jessie. In addition to art, Somers also studied nursing. When it was time for Jessie to give birth to Beverley, Somers delivered her. Upon her return to England, Somers worked as a ‘tracer’ during the Second World War. The job of a tracer was to trace drawings prepared by draughtsmen to facilitate the production of blueprint copies.

James Joyce, novelist and short story writer, was born in Dublin on 2 February 1882 and educated at University College, Dublin. His collection of short stories, Dubliners, was published in 1912. He wrote two famous novels, Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939). He died in Zurich on 13 January 1941.

Lte. Richard Hoken Joyce was a Canadian service man in the First World War. He enlisted at the age of 33 and served with the 58th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force from July 1915 to August 1919 when he was demobilized.

Reuben Jucksch was born on 5 July 1887 to Ernst August Jucksch and Maria Kalbfleisch of Hanover, Ontario. He volunteered for the army in 1914 at the age of 27 and served with the 20th Canadian Battalion. On his attestation paper, he listed his profession as an artist and painted throughout the war despite prohibitions against it. Jukes’ diaries regularly noted his painting and sketching activities. He was sent to the front on 15 September 1915 and was in hospital when the diaries start, but did not indicate why. He reports the progress of the war, gas attacks, the constant noise of bombardments, and the irritation from lice. He remains in Germany and Belgium until February 1919, when he returns to England, and then is sent back to Canada in May of that year. Following the war he worked in Vaudeville both as a set painter and in various acts. He supplemented his income as a sign painter and in 1940 he founded a sign painting business in Kitchener, Ontario. Jukes died in May 1959 at the age of 71.

Evelyn Mae Kapitain was the sister of Charles G. Kapitain. Charles was born 15 August 1888 in Toronto, and served with the American Expeditionary Services (AEF) for two years during World War I. The AEF was created in May 1917 as an addition to the American force in France. Charles was a member of the 303rd Engineer unit of the AEF from May 1918 until 19 June 1919. The AEF fought two notable battles in France from September to October 1918: St. Mihiel, and the Battle of Argonne. These two operations saw the Allied forces recover more than two hundred square miles of French territory from the Germans.

Dave Kashtan was born in Montreal in 1912. His parents, Dasha and Solomon Kashtan were born in Ukraine. Fleeing tsarist antisemitic oppression, they settled in the Mile End neighbourhood in Montreal where his father worked as a labourer, and later opened a small grocery store. He left school at age 13. He became interested in Communism at a young age through the influence of his brother Bill, who later led the Communist Party of Canada. Dave joined the orchestra of the Young Pioneer Club, playing the mandolin. He briefly found work as a steamfitter, until he was compelled to leave the trade due to his health. In 1929, he was appointed organizer of the YCL. On 19 January 1931, the Montreal Council of Unemployed held a meeting at the Labour Temple; the meeting was raided and its five speakers, including Dave and Fred Rose, were charged with sedition. Dave was sentenced to one year imprisonment at the Bordeaux Jail. Dave was also an active member of the Workers Sports Association of Canada and was appointed national secretary. In 1938, he was appointed national secretary of the Young Communist League. During the 1953 Canadian Federal Election, Dave ran unsuccessfully for the York Centre riding, as a member of the Labor-Progressive Party. He left the Party in 1960.

Dave was the husband of Rose (Eizenstraus) Kashtan.

Rose Eizenstraus was born in 1913. Her parents were socialist atheists, and she was raised in the Toronto Jewish community. At an early age, she became involved in the Young Pioneers. In 1939, she was Tim Buck’s private secretary. Rose was one of the founding members of the New Theatre Group in Montreal. In Toronto, she was involved in the Belmont Theatre Group and the Theatre of Action. She performed in the notorious play, Eight Men Speak, in the role of Zelda, during its sole performance at Toronto’s Standard Theatre on December 4, 1933.

Rose was the wife of Dave Kashtan.

Mary Jane Palliser, was the youngest daughter of Sir Hugh Palliser, 2nd Baronet, and Mary, was born sometime after 1796. Her first marriage was in 1822 to William Lockhart of Gormiston. Her second marriage was to John Manly Arbuthnot, Lord Keane on 11 May 1848. She died in October of 1881.

J. N. (Pat) Kelly served as public relations adviser to the Steel Company of Canada (Stelco) during the 1946 strike. He lived with Hugh Hilton, President of the Company, at the Royal Connaught Hotel during the strike.

Nancy Kennedy-Reid was born in Carnarvon, North Wales, on 2 August 1902 and educated in England. She emigrated to Canada in 1926 and trained as a nurse at the Montreal General Hospital in 1929. She travelled with The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada to England in December 1940. Once there she worked as an Assistant Matron, Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps (R.C.A.M.C.) at No. 1 Canadian Hospital, Marston Green. The hospital moved to Hailsham, Sussex two years later. In June 1942 she was promoted to Matron. In November 1943 she was posted to No. 1 Canadian General Hospital, Andria, Italy, later moving to Rome. She returned to England in August 1944 to serve at No. 23 Canadian General Hospital, Leavesden, near Watford. Kennedy-Reid was appointed a member of the Royal Red Cross by George V. She returned to Canada on 1 January 1946 where she became the director of nursing at St. Anne's Hospital, St. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec. She retired in 1967.