Kemp, Private Archie Alexander

Service highlights

  • Service number: 3130489
  • Rank: Private
  • Born: 30 January 1894, Blanshard Township, west of St. Marys
  • Work: Farmer on the family farm on the Kirkton Road
  • Drafted: 4 January 1918, 1st Depot Battalion, Western Ontario Regiment (in London, Ontario)
  • Admitted to hospital: 21 January 1918, London Military Hospital (pneumonia)
  • Died: 28 January 1918 at 10 a.m., in hospital
  • Burial: Kirkton Union Cemetery
  • Commemorated: cenotaph at Rannoch

A Life and Service Remembered

Archie Alexander Kemp was born in Blanshard Township on 30 January 1894, one of three sons of David and Ellen (Robinson) Kemp. When he was called up for service, he was still working the family farm on the Kirkton Road, the same steady rhythm of work that shaped many lives in the countryside west of St. Marys.

By the spring of 1917, Canada faced a hard truth: there were not enough volunteers to keep the Canadian Expeditionary Force overseas at strength. The Military Service Act of 1917 introduced conscription, a bill drafted by a a St. Marys resident, Arthur Meighen, it sorted men into classes based on age and marital status. Those age 20-34 who had no attachments were to report for medial examination. For Archie, that meant being drawn into service not through a recruitment rally or a farewell parade, but through a national policy that reached right into rural homes.

For a time, he was not processed as quickly as others. The account suggests that, like thousands of agricultural workers, Archie may have filed an appeal, and he was not medically examined at the Stratford Armoury until 8 December 1917. Soon after, on 4 January 1918, he reported for duty with the 1st Depot Battalion, Western Ontario Regiment, in London.

Training camp life was harsh. Facilities were austere, overcrowding was common, and the shift from a semi isolated farm life to crowded barracks could be a shock to the body as well as the mind. Family tradition holds that Archie was forced to sleep on a bare stone or concrete floor in the overcrowded quarters. Whatever the exact circumstances, he quickly fell ill. On 21 January 1918, he was admitted to London Military Hospital with pneumonia.

His condition worsened quickly. His mother visited on 22 and 23 January, days that would have meant everything to a family watching helplessly from his bedside. Archie did not recover. He died in hospital at 10 a.m. on 28 January 1918, just two days before his twenty fourth birthday.

Archie was buried in Kirkton Union Cemetery. He was survived by his parents, who later lived in St. Marys, and by two brothers, Oliver and George Lionel. Both brothers enlisted in the 110th (Perth) Canadian Infantry Battalion and served overseas, a reminder of how one family could be touched by service in very different ways. Archie Kemp is commemorated on the cenotaph at Rannoch.

Major battles and operations

  • Home front conscription and depot service under the Military Service Act, 1917
  • Training and mobilization with the 1st Depot Battalion, Western Ontario Regiment (London, Ontario)
  • Military hospitalization during the First World War (pneumonia), January 1918

Learn More