LEST WE FORGET 215 KEENAN, John Edward PEACETIME John was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, on May 1, 1932, the son of George and Elizabeth Keenan. He served first with the Sea Cadets and then joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1951. Following basic training in Nova Scotia, he went on to serve in the north and south Pacific. In 1952, he joined HMCS Cedarwood, which was assigned to Pacific Naval Laboratories for oceanographic surveys of the inside passage of British Columbia. Following that, he was drafted in late 1953 to the cruiser HMCS Ontario and accompanied the Royal Yacht Britannia during Queen Elizabeth II’s Commonwealth tour to Hawaii, Tonga, Fiji, Tasmania, New Zealand and Australia in 1954. Later, Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, would join the ship to visit Kitimat for the grand opening ceremonies of the giant generating plant at Kemano, BC. His final posting was with the University of Manitoba’s UNTD division at HMCS Chippawa in Winnipeg. In 1956, John joined Canadian Pacific Airlines, now Air Canada, and served in marketing and sales for the next 36 years. John resides with his wife, Elizabeth, and family in Toronto, Ontario. KENT, William Cornelius WWI William was born on May 2, 1898 in Burford, Ontario, the son of Benjamin and Bertha Kent. William’s father worked in the local flourmill as well as farmed. William moved to Outlook, Saskatchewan, with his parents in 1912; and, after completing his education, he joined the staff of the Outlook branch of the Bank of Montreal in December of 1914. He enlisted in Outlook on December 8, 1915, as a Private in the 128th Battalion of the Canadian Light Infantry. He went overseas in August 1916. After a short machine gun course, he was sent to France to join the 46th Battalion. On the morning of April 9, 1917, he was killed instantly by enemy fire as his section was advancing toward enemy troops in the successful campaign to capture Vimy Ridge.Willian Cornelius Kent is buried in a joint grave at Douau Communal Cemetery in France. KEENAN, Robert Donald PEACETIME Donald was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1933, the son of George and Elizabeth Keenan. He served first with the Sea Cadets and then following in his brother’s footsteps, was off to sea in 1952 with the Royal Canadian Navy where he served for over thirty years, retiring as Chief Warrant Officer. Donald would find his sea legs onboard the training cruiser HMCS Ontario, the most powerful of all the great ships of war of the RCN and would go on to serve in at least a dozen other ships and shore establishments. He was a welcome addition to any mess deck where the pipe to ‘up spirits’ meant that wonderful salty tales and stories were about to be shared over sippers of “Nelson’s Blood”. He was always at home, whether in destroyers dashing about the glittering blue of tropical seas or standing watch during the cruel seas of winter in the north Atlantic. Donald loved the pomp and ceremony of all things military and sadly slipped his final berth on December 20, 2016.
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