Soldier’s U.K. war medal comes home
Bill Gadoua’s First World War medal returned to family
Peter McConkey couldn't be happier to provide a new home for a valuable piece of family history – the British War Medal awarded to Private William (Bill) Joseph Gadoua for First World War service featured in The Examiner earlier this month. That's when Alex McKenna of Toronto reached out, hoping to connect with a closer descendant of the Peterborough-man who earned the United Kingdom campaign medal. Gadoua was his uncle by marriage – his aunt have him the medal before she died in 1980. The very link he sought came from McConkey, a retired professor of philosophy and French philosophical literature at York University who just happens to be the family historian for both his mother and father's side of the family tree. After learning about McKenna's story, the Peterborough man provided the Alderwood retiree with genealogical background dating back to the 1600s. With no more Gadwa, Gadois or Gadouas living in the Electric City, the infantryman's cousins – including him – are now his closest living relatives, explained McConkey. He said he has plans to put the medal into a three dimensional picture frame with a written account of how it was returned to Peterborough. “This is nice to see back in Peterborough,” he said Monday morning, turning the shiny medal over in his hands. “I really appreciate Alex's willingness to turn this over to us ... It's extremely valuable to us, from both a historical perspective and a personal perspective.” The decision was an easy one for McKenna, who was equally pleased. “It makes me feel good that this could wind up with a family that has closer ties to Bill than I did,” he said Monday, calling McConkey's knowledge of his family history “just amazing.” “I'm really glad that they got the medal. The family deserves it,” he said, pointing out how his own children will get his father and uncle's war medals, but wouldn't have known anything about Gadoua if they received his medal, too. The veteran of more than 50 years with Toronto Fire Service and the Office of the Fire Marshal said reaching out was “a shot in the dark” that couldn't have turned out better. “The amount of time spent on your family's history shows that you have a genuine interest in preserving your family's history and any artifacts associated with that history,” he wrote to McConkey via email.
Gadoua, who enlisted in the 93rd Battalion (Peterborough) Canadian Expeditionary Force on Dec. 16, 1915, died on New Year's Day in 1963 at age 65. He was actually 17 when he listed, McConkey found out – he lied by advancing his real birthday by seven months. The retired professor has traced his family's roots back to France. Bill's father, Joseph Gadouas, came to Peterborough in the 1860s, from the parish of St. Isidore, Laprairie County, Quebec. In fact, if you go back eight generations, the Gadouas are related to gunsmith Pierre Gadois, who immigrated to La Belle Province between 1633 and 1640 and was the first person to be given land in Montreal, in 1646. “He's quite a historical character,” McConkey said. His mother would be very pleased to know the medal has returned to the family collection in Peterborough, he said. His mom, who was 11 at the outbreak of the First World War, was very close to her cousin Bill. “We're very, very proud to have it,” he said. “If (Alex) was looking for a good home for Bill's medal, then he has found it.” McConkey, 78, never met Bill, who moved to Rochester after the war. Gadoua did return frequently to the city to visit his mother before she died in the 1950s, he said. He also moved from Rochester to New Toronto, where he worked for years as a crane operator at Anaconda Brass. McConkey recalls visiting “Aunt Mary Gadois,” actually his great-aunt, at the House of Providence behind Immaculate Conception Rectory on Rogers Street. – the predecessor to today's Marycrest At Inglewood Seniors' Residence. The mother of the medal recipient was short in stature, but big in character, he said. “She was a very upbeat, comical woman.”