Grant, Bombardier Kenneth Marshall

Service highlights

  • Service number: 91031
  • Born: March 10 1894
  • Rank at death: Bombardier
  • Unit: 29th (Howitzer) Battery, 11th Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery
  • Enlisted: 6 October 1915, Guelph, Ontario
  • Sailed for overseas: 26 February 1916 (Missinaibi)
  • Went to France: 14 July 1916
  • Died: 30 October 1916, near Martinpuich, France (south east of Courcelette)
  • Burial: Albert Communal Cemetery Extension, France

A Life and Service Remembered

Kenneth Marshall Grant was born in Guelph on 10 March 1894. By his late teens he was already working and building a steady life, first as a shipping clerk and then as a clerk with the Royal Bank of Canada. In September 1911 he was transferred to the St. Marys branch, where he boarded on Church Street South and became well known and well thought of in the community.

When he chose to enlist, he did not join one of the locally recruited units. Instead, he returned to Guelph to join the artillery, likely drawn by the people he knew there and the pull of serving alongside friends. Those who worked with him at the bank marked his departure with a formal send off and an engraved watch, a small but lasting sign of the respect he earned in everyday life.

He enlisted with the 29th (Howitzer) Battery on 6 October 1915 and quickly showed leadership, being promoted to sergeant before the battery sailed. They sailed on the SS Missanabie in Feb of 1916. Once in England, changes to the battery’s organization left him with a difficult choice: keep his rank and remain in England as an instructor, or give up his stripes to stay with his battery. Kenneth chose to stay with his unit. On 5 May 1916 he reverted to gunner, and after the battery reached France he was promoted again to Bombardier.

After an introductory tour in the Ypres Salient, his battery was moved south to the Somme area in October 1916, where counter battery work brought constant danger. On 30 October 1916, while having supper in a dugout at the gun positions near Martinpuich, an enemy high explosive shell struck and wrecked the dugout. Kenneth was killed instantly, along with a comrade.

Kenneth was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Grant of Guelph. He was also one of a large family, remembered by siblings Hazel, Elma, Elizabeth, Agnes, Paul, Douglas, Robert, and Russell. He is commemorated on the cenotaph in St. Marys.

Major battles and operations

  • Ypres Salient (introductory tour)
  • Somme sector (fall 1916)
    • Artillery support for Canadian Corps attacks
    • Counter battery work near Martinpuich and Courcelette, where he was killed on 30 October 1916

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