From Great War Society Member
Dr. Joyce Kennedy


My Dad, Robert James Kennedy

My father served with the Canadian Artillery in the Great War and fought in all the significant operations of the Canadian Expeditionary Force until he was seriously wounded and rotated home. Here are the details of his war service:

  • Enlisted Canadian Forces August, 1914
  • Assigned Regimental Number 40828
  • Sailed with First Division in October, 1914
  • Served with 2nd Battery, 1st Artillery Brigade
  • Fought near St. Julien during first gas attack in 1915
  • Mentioned in despatches "For gallant and distinguished services in the field" on 9 April 1917 during Capture of Vimy Ridge
  • Wounded on 24 August 1917 (when there was a direct hit on his gun pit)
  • Returned to Canada as a result of wounds in October, 1917
  • Served with military police in Canada in 1918
  • Discharged in January 1919
After the war dad served as the Clerk and Treasurer (not a "clerk" but something like a county CAO or Executive) of Cumberland Township in the Ottawa Valley for more than 30 years.

All three of his eligible sons served in the RCAF during the Second World War. (A fourth son was only 16 when the war ended.) One son, Squadron Leader Hap Kennedy, DFC and Bar, was a Spitfire ace with more than a dozen enemy aircraft shot down. He later became a medical doctor and wrote a war memoir on his service Black Crosses off my Wingtip. Another son, Flying Officer Carleton G. Kennedy, was killed on his first mission in a Halifax bomber in August, 1944.

Robert James Kennedy is the father of Joyce M. Kennedy, Ph. D., Director Emeritus, CSUN Ventura Campus. Her book, Distant Thunder: Canada's Citizen Soldiers on the Western Front, was published in March, 2000


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