John Dennis Kelly was born in Mulgrave, Guysborough County, on January 24, 1918, the seventh of John Sr.and Bridget Anastasia (Keay) Kellly’s nine children. John Sr. was the son of Matthew and Elizabeth (Kavanaugh) Kelly, while Bridget Anastasia was the daughter of Dennis and Sarah (Breen) Keay. Both of John Dennis’s parents were St. Francis Harbour natives.
 |
| Private John Dennis Kelly, Mulgrave, NS |
John Sr. and Bridget Anastasia were married in St. Francis Harbour on June 27, 1906. The couple settled in Mulgrave, where John worked as a brakeman on the Intercolonial—later Canadian National—Railway. Their first child, Alonzo James “Lon,” was born on May 22, 1907. A second son, Thomas Matthew, arrived on January 4, 1909. Another seven children joined the Kelly household during the ensuing years—Augusta Marie “Gussie” (DOB June 24, 1911); Mary Elizabeth (DOB March 7, 1913); Kathleen Sarah “Kay” (DOB November 2, 1914); Josephine Mary (DOB June 14, 1916); John Dennis; Bernard Ambrose (DOB December 12, 1920); and Daniel Jerome “Danny” (DOB September 4, 1922).
John Dennis Kelly completed Grade IX at Mulgrave Public School before leaving in June 1934 at age 16. After working as a tractor and truck driver in the local community for several years, he obtained a job as a locomotive fireman with Canadian National Railways, Mulgrave, in 1939. That year, John celebrated his 21st birthday on January 24, making him an ideal candidate for military service after the outbreak of war overseas in September 1939.
On January 29, 1941—five days after his 23rd birthday—John underwent a National Resources Mobilization Act (NRMA) medical examination at Mulgrave and was placed in “Category A”—fit for military service. Another year passed before NRMA authorities contacted him. As he had severely sprained an ankle while playing hockey in January 1942, officials recommended that he be “recalled” in three months.
On May 18, 1942, military authorities completed a Certificate of Medical Unfitness for Enrolment at No. 61 (Basic) Training Centre, New Glasgow, placing John in “Category D”—temporarily unfit for service for another three months. Finally, on August 21, 1942, a third medical examination concluded he was fit for military service and recommended he commence training in preparation for posting to a Royal Canadian Artillery anti-tank regiment.
John formally attested for military service at No. 6 District Depot, Halifax, on September 9, 1942. Eight days later, he reported to No. 61 (Basic) Training Centre, New Glasgow for initial instruction. In mid-November 1942, he proceeded to A2 (Advanced) Training Centre, Petawawa, ON, where he commenced artillery training.
While an initial assessment recommended a posting to the Home Defence Establishment (HDE), John expressed a strong desire “to get Overseas.” In response, military officials recommended “further training in Artillery as a Driver,” after which “he should be returned to [the] Army Examiner for further review.” On January 20, 1943, John qualified as Driver Class III and was awarded a two-week furlough shortly afterward.
During John’s absence, military authorities re-evaluated his circumstances. A note from a Petawawa official described “a history of weak spells” and pains under the heart…,” raising concerns about his suitability for overseas service. While John had expressed a “desire… to serve as a stoker in the Navy,” officials recommended that “he be employed as [a] fireman on HDE [Home Defence Establishment]” and requested that a Medical Board reassess his fitness category.
In early February 1943, John returned to Petawawa, where he awaited a final decision on his military future. Due to a low score on the PULHEMS System—Physique, Upper body, Lower body & Locomotion, Hearing, Eyes, Mental capacity and Stability—a Medical Board placed John in Category C-1—fit only for “home defence” duty—on June 1, 1943. Two weeks later, he was assigned to duty at a “Field Experimental Station” located in Suffield, AB.
Suffield Experimental Station was established to replace a similar British/ French facility that operated at Beni Ounif, approximately 300 kilometres south of Oran, Algeria, until German forces gained control of the French territory in mid-1940. An initial group of British scientists arrived in Alberta in the spring of 1941 and the station commenced operation on June 11, 1941.
During its wartime operation, approximately 600 individuals from a broad spectrum of scientific fields—chemistry, physics, meteorology. pharmacology, veterinary science, mechanical and chemical engineering—conducted chemical and biological defence research in support of the Allied war effort. Their primary focus was the development of countermeasures against the potential use of chemical weapons. During the years after the war, the Station’s work provided the scientific basis for the development of several modern-day chemotherapy cancer treatments.
Canada’s Home Defence Establishment (HDE) provided a detachment of military personnel that guarded the facility and carried out a variety of non-scientific operational tasks. An entry in John’s service file, dated June 14, 1944, assessed his performance during his first year of service there as “efficient, dependable and industrious.” However, the note also indicated that “he had lost interest in the Army since lowered Pulhems [score] prevent[ed] overseas service.”
In fact, John submitted an Application for Discharge from military service on April 4, 1944, requesting a return to employment with the CNR at Mulgrave. While his Commanding Officer, Major R. C. Lister, supported the application, the request appears to have proceeded no further. John was quite likely disillusioned at his inability to serve overseas and failure to receive a discharge, his service file recording several disciplinary infractions during his second year of service at the facility.
On July 4, 1945, John was transferred to No. 29 Company, Veterans Guard of Canada, which was responsible for security at Internment Camp 130, Seebe, Alberta, 330 kilometres west of Suffield. It is not clear whether the change of assignment occurred as a result of John’s disciplinary infractions or the need for additional personnel at the facility.
 |
| Guard Tower at Internment Camp 130, Kakanaskis, AB (date unknown) |
Situated in the Rocky Mountains approximately 30 kilometers east of Canmore, Internment Camp 130, also known as “Camp K” (Kananaskis), had operated as an “unemployment relief camp” from 1934 to 1936. Temporarily abandoned after that time, the facility accepted its first “civilian detainees” on September 8, 1939, two days prior to Canada’s official declaration of war on Germany.
The facility initially housed “known and suspected enemy [German and Italian] sympathizers” from Ontario and Western Canada. While set in a picturesque location, the camp was remote and provided few programs for its detainees. Eventually, the majority of its internees were given several opportunities to work—improving and enlarging the camp’s facilities, landscaping the site, and cutting wood for winter fuel—in exchange for a small salary
By July 1941, some of Camp K’s initial detainees had been released following clearance by an investigative board. The remaining men were transferred to camps in Fredericton, NB, and Petawawa, ON. Re-designated Camp 130, the facility re-opened in November 1941 as a “prisoner of war” (POW) camp, following the arrival of 500 German “Enemy Merchant Seamen” from a facility in Red Rock, ON.
While detained in Kananaskis, the new arrivals participated in a variety of recreational activities—football (soccer), ice sports, gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, and music—and later took advantage of courses covering a wide variety of subject areas, offered at a wide range of levels. Many of the men were craftsmen who produced handcrafts—model ships, desk sets, cigarette boxes, etc.—that internees traded with one another and were later permitted to sell to staff and guards. Volunteers also cut firewood in the nearby forests, while select inmates received permission to work on farms in the Brooks, AB, area, approximately 200 kilometers east of Calgary.
In mid-1944, the arrival in Canada of increasing numbers of POWs captured during the Normandy campaign resulted in the camp’s transition to a facility for “combatant officers.” Its remaining civilian detainees were relocated to a camp at Monteith, ON, in July 1944 and were replaced by German officers and a small group of “other ranks” POWs who served as orderlies.
As German POWs arrived in Canada, officials categorized them according to their perceived “political opinions.” Camp 130 received individuals considered “Black,” or pro-Nazi. The recreational and educational activities offered to previous detainees continued throughout the duration of its POW operation. After the cessation of hostilities in Western Europe in early May 1945, interested detainees were hired to clear brush at nearby Barrier Lake, where the Calgary Power Company planned to construct a hydroelectric dam.
A combination of Veterans Guard of Canada (VGC) personnel—approximately 100 First World War veterans—and Home Defence Establishment (HDE) men—a similar number of Canadian Infantry Corps recruits and “young soldiers”— were responsible for security at Camp 130. The facility’s perimeter contained eight guard towers, seven of which were manned by three “other ranks” (OR). One Corporal and five OR were responsible for the eighth position, located at the enclosure’s main gate. With the exception of three Lance Corporals, all personnel on guard duty carried loaded weapons.
Guards worked a 12-hour rotation, relief taking place at the main gate at 0600 and 1800 hours daily. On each occasion, personnel commencing and completing shifts followed strict protocols with regard to ammunition. Each soldier reported for duty with five rounds of ammunition on their person, obtained from a quantity of 20 cartridges stored in their quarters. Guards commencing duty loaded their rifles in the presence of the shift’s Guard Officer and Camp Field Officer.
The rifle bolt was closed and the safety engaged during the loading process, eliminating any possibility of a live round being loaded into the firing chamber. Bullets were placed in a magazine, which was then inserted into the rifle. Each weapon bore a unique serial number recorded at the time of issue, allowing officials to distinguish one soldier’s gun from another’s.
While on duty, all ranks were instructed that “at no time is a round to be moved into the chamber unless any emergency calling for the firing of the rifle arises.” After loading and inspection, the new shift assembled at a flag pole in the yard, formed into two groups, and proceeded along a catwalk to their assigned posts. At each location, one soldier commenced sentry duty on the tower’s upper floor, while his comrades awaited their turn in a room below.
At the end of each shift, soldiers returned to the main gate in two groups and unloaded their weapons under a senior officer’s supervision. Personnel extracted the magazines from their rifles, removed the shells and placed them in their pockets. The bullets were then returned to safe storage in their quarters, where soldiers were required to maintain a supply of 20 rounds “available at all times in case of alarm.” Once unloaded, rifles were inspected to ensure that proper procedure had been followed.
Not all soldiers were “dedicated followers” of the Camp’s military procedures. Lt. James Bateman, No. 29 Company, VGC, noted that the “young soldiers” often exhibited a different attitude with regard to the routines than the older, experienced veterans: “I would say that the new personnel are eager and conscientious but do not seem to realize the importance of carrying out the details of the procedure[,] in spite of checking.”
An incident that took place on the evening of August 19, 1945, provided a deadly example of the perils of guard duty with loaded weapons. At 1800 hours that day, the routine guard shift change commenced as scheduled. Among the soldiers being relieved were Privates John Dennis Kelly, Ian Bruce Mathies, Toronto, ON, and Harry Plumb, Hamilton, ON. All three had recently arrived at Camp 130, although at different times. John and Pte. Mathies had been on duty in Tower 3 with a third soldier, Pte. David Lees. The trio were “standing in a ragged line” with a group of comrades near the facility’s Scout Office, awaiting orders to “fall in” prior to dismissal from duty.
Private Plumb had also completed his shift in Tower 1. He had already unloaded his weapon while in the room below his guard tower and placed it on a two-gun rack prior to the arrival of relief shift. As the soldiers coming on duty entered the room, one of the men told those being relieved to “get [your] rifles the hell out of here,” as no space was available on the rack for the new shift’s weapons.
Private Plumb went to retrieve his weapon from the rack and later recalled having seen “a rifle being taken out of the rack” where he thought he had placed his gun. As he had “tightened the sling” on his rifle, he looked around the room and saw one on a nearby bed. It “looked just like mine… [as] the sling was tight so… I took it out.” He then exited the room and “stepped off the step in front of the tower.” As he descended into the yard, he executed a procedure that soldiers with advanced infantry training had been taught to follow, to ensure that their weapons were not loaded:
“I was facing the outer wire. From habit[,] I raised the rifle to the low port [position - butt stock touching the shoulder, muzzle pointed down at the ground in front of one’s feet], opened and closed the bolt and eased the springs. I was not looking at my breech. We had been taught not to look at the bolt or safety catch when easing springs.”
Assuming that his weapon was not loaded, Pte. Plumb then squeezed the trigger to ensure that the chamber was empty. To his horror, the weapon immediately discharged. The round struck two soldiers who had just come off duty and were standing close by—Privates John Kelly and Ian Mathies. The bullet “through [Mathies’] chest wall from side to side,” striking Private John Kelly under his right arm. Both men immediately fell to the ground.
Personnel standing nearby immediately notified the camp’s Medical Officer, Lieutenant H. Krivel, who quickly arrived on the scene. Krivel later recalled that the builet “had passed through {Pte. Mathies’] chest wall from side to side.” He was “gasping for breath and in an extreme state of shock” as he lay on the ground.
Lt. Krivel checked for vital signs, but a “radial pulse could not be felt.” Both shooting victims were hastily transported by stretcher to the camp’s Medical Inspection Room, where Krivel “again examined [Mathies] and found he was dead.” Meanwhile, John had been “covered in blankets and hot water bottles placed around him.” He was also in a state of shock, with no detectable radial pulse and very shallow respiration.
Medical staff immediately started “continuous intravenous fluid” and “the patient started to rally,” John’s pulse and respiration improving. Lt. Krivel later described what followed in testimony given to a Court of Inquiry:
“This improved period lasted only about three-quarters of an hour. His respirations then became progressively weaker…. At 2020 hours, the heart stopped… [and Private Kelly] was pronounced dead.”
Twenty minutes later, the Commanding Officer of No. 29 Company, VGC, dispatched a telegram to Mr. John Kelly, Mulgrave, stating:
“Deeply regret [to] inform you that your son… Pte. John Dennis Kelly died at 2020 hours 19 August 1945 as a result of a rifle accident. You will be notified later [with regard to] arrangements for funeral. Body will be forwarded to Mulgrave unless you desire otherwise[.] Please advise.”
On August 21, military officials convened a Court of Inquiry at Camp 130, to investigate the “circumstances surrounding the deaths of… Pte. Mathies, I. B. and… Pte. Kelly, J. D., both of CIC [Canadian Infantry Corps], posted supernumerary [to] No. 29 Company, VGC.” Over a period of two days, the Court heard evidence from 14 witnesses, including Pte. Plumb. Their testimony allowed officials to determine what had led to the tragic incident.
Private Frederick Stokes, one the soldiers coming on duty at Tower 1, stated that he “automatically went to the two-rifle rack” in the room where Pte. Plumb was waiting to be relieved and there were “two rifles in it.” He “automatically took one rifle out, and put it on the bed, and then put my own in its place.” After the shooting occurred, he asked his comrades in Tower 1 “if they had their own rifles, and they started checking the [serial] numbers.”
One of the pair, Pte. S. Saltmarsh, “took his rifle out of the rack[,]… opened the bolt” and discovered that the gun was empty. Pte. Stokes reported that Pte. Plumb “had not left the tower when I changed rifles in the rack.” Stokes did not see Plumb take a rifle, nor could he say “whether or not the rifle I took out of the rack was loaded. I don’t know whose rifle it was.”
Pte. Saltmarsh also confirmed that he had loaded his weapon prior to entering the guard room below Tower 1 and placed it in the gun rack. When he checked his gun after the incident, he discovered that it was empty. Upon examining the serial number, he realized that it was not his rifle. Using the record of serial numbers recorded at the time of issue, officials determined that the rifle in Pte. Saltmarsh’s possession had been issued to Pte. Plumb, while the weapon from which the bullet had been fired belonged to Pte. Saltmarsh.
From his testimony at the hearing, officials also learned that, contrary to regular procedures, Pte. Plumb had removed the bullets from his gun’s magazine while inside the guard tower, not at the main gate with his comrades, in the presence of a supervising officer. Had he followed the required routine, he would have known that his gun was loaded as he exited the room below Tower 1 and the tragic incident would not have occurred.
John’s remains were transported to Mulgrave, where a military funeral was held on August 30. Following the service, he was laid to rest in St. Lawrence Parish Roman Catholic Cemetery, Mulgrave. John Kelly Sr. died in Mulgrave on November 23, 1955, at 78 years of age, while his wife Bridget Anastasia passed away in the home of her son-in-law, Ernest Miller, Stellarton, on March 5, 1963.
John’s younger brother, Daniel Jerome “Danny,” also enlisted during the Second World War, serving in combat in Western Europe with an unknown unit. Upon returning to Canada, Danny settled in Sept Îles, QC, where he worked as a locomotive engineer while raising a family of five children. He passed away there on January 6, 1982, at 59 years of age.
Josephine Mary Kelly, John Dennis and Danny’s older sister, had married John Theodore “Ted” Chisholm, Mulgrave, prior to the war. Ted’s older sister, Ellen Irene, was born in Hadleyville, Guysborough County, on February 28, 1906, and later completed nursing studies. Ellen was a member of the staff at Camp Hill Hospital, Halifax, when King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth visited the facility during the couple’s May/June 1939 Royal Tour of Canada.
 |
| King George VI and Nurse Ellen Irene Chisholm at Camp Hill Hospital, Halifax, 1939 |
At an unknown time during her youth, Ellen was diagnosed with “diabetes mellitus.” During the spring of 1943, she fell into a diabetic coma and died of anemia in the Halifax Infirmary, Halifax, on June 3, 1943. Ellen Irene Chisholm was laid to rest in St. Francis Harbour, Guysborough County.
Special thanks to twin sisters Eleanor (Chisholm) Smith and Ellen (Chisholm) MacDonald, Antigonish, NS, daughters of Ted and Josephine (Kelly) Chisholm, Mulgrave. Ellen and Eleanor contributed pictures of their uncle John Dennis Kelly and aunt Ellen Chisholm, and provided background information on the Kelly family.
No comments:
Post a Comment