Victoria Cross
“My uncle never talked about what he had done at Passchendaele,” his 89-year-old nephew, John Kinross-Kennedy said from California. “He was very quiet, and very polite, and just the nicest uncle you could ever have.” John Kinross-Kennedy spent his childhood summers at his mother’s family farm near Lougheed, Alta. Among his cherished activities was heading out into the field with his Uncle Cecil to gather wheat.
Hoodoo
Cecil Kinross was tall, slim and had piercing blue eyes. He had two younger sisters, preferred silence to talking, and never spoke of the war. “Of the multifarious characters the Forty-Ninth boasted,” wrote a onetime officer of the 49th Battalion, a forerunner of the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, “one of the strangest if not the kingpin of them all was Hoodoo Kinross.”
Early Life of Cecil John Kinross
Cecil John Kinross (1896-1957) born 17 February 1896 at Dews Farm, Harefield, near Uxbridge, Middlesex. His father, James Stirling Kinross, originally from Perth, Scotland, and travelled to Texas and became a cowboy for a time before returning to the UK. He took over Flanders Farm, Hurley, Warwickshire in 1888, before moving to Harefield in 1891, where he was in partnership with his brother John until 1894. He married Emily Alice Hull (1871-1920) in 1891. They emigrated to Canada aboard RMS Empress of Ireland from Liverpool, arriving on 12th March 1911. They settled on a farm near Lougheed, Alberta and James became a JP. Cecil had one sister, Elizabeth S (Kelman) Kinross (1894-1986).
His house on Dews Lane, a private lane in Harefield, near West Ruislip, built between 1575 and 1600. Queen Elizabeth I visited it for a few weeks in 1602 towards the end of her life, though according to a local history book it rained throughout her stay. Cecil educated at Hurley School, Kingsbury, Warwickshire, Lea Marston Boys School, and Coleshill Grammar School, near Birmingham.
As a young man, injured by a plough, which scarred his shins for life.
Enlistment of Private Cecil J Kinross
He was working on a farm when war broke out, and Private Kinross 437793 enlisted in 51st Battalion in Calgary on 21 October 1915. He sailed for England arriving on 18th December with the 3rd Reinforcing Draft of the 51st Bn and posted to 9th Reserve Battalion at Shorncliffe, Kent on 28th December. After a bout of German measles, he headed to France on 15th March 1916 with the 49th Battalion.
First Wound Stripe
Kinross became a runner for D Company and gained a reputation for dodging bullets. As a result nicknamed “Hoodoo”. When newcomers assigned to him, bets taken how long they would last. Kinross attached to 7th Canadian Trench Mortar Battery from 23rd May until 25th August.
His luck ran out in an attack on Regina Trench on the Somme on 8th October, when hit by shrapnel in the right arm and side. He rejoined his unit a month later, and took part in the assault on Vimy Ridge in April 1917. Later that year, he took part in the fighting around Lens and granted leave from 28th August to 15th September.
Passchendaele
The day after the attack (29 October 1917, on Passchendaele Ridge), the ‘B’ company to which he now belonged came under intense artillery fire, and further advance held up by a very severe fire from an enemy machine gun. The call went out for a volunteer. Pte. Kinross stepped forward.
Private Kinross, making a careful survey of the situation, deliberately divested himself of all his equipment save his rifle and bandolier and, regardless of his personal safety, advanced alone over the open ground in broad daylight, charged the enemy machine gun, killing the crew of six, and seized and destroyed the gun. His superb example and courage instilled the greatest confidence in his company, and enabled a further advance of 300 yards to be made and a highly important position to be established.
Kinross would kill six Germans, destroy the gun and continue fighting until he ran out of ammunition and seriously wounded in the head and left arm. He walked himself back to an aid station. C.D. McBride, a stretcher-bearer attached to another unit, would recount how word of the “wild Canadian, running amok trying to defeat the entire German army single-handed,” rippled through the ranks, lifting morale.
Victoria Cross Citation
“For most conspicuous bravery in action during prolonged and severe operations.
Shortly after the attack was launched, the company to which he belonged came under intense artillery fire, and further advance was held up by a very severe fire from an enemy machine gun. Pte. Kinross, making a careful survey of the situation, deliberately divested himself of all his equipment save his rifle and bandolier and, regardless of his personal safety, advanced alone over the open ground in broad daylight, charged the enemy machine gun, killing the crew of six, and seized and destroyed the gun. His superb example and courage instilled the greatest confidence in his company, and enabled a further advance of 300 yards to be made and a highly important position to be established.
Throughout the day he showed marvellous coolness and courage, fighting with the utmost aggressiveness against heavy odds until seriously wounded.”- London Gazette, no.30471, 11 January 1918
Return to England
Cecil was evacuated due to his wounds to Britain and admitted to No 2 Military Hospital, Canterbury on 3rd November.
He was eventually transferred to 21st Reserve Battalion.
The VC presented by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 6 April 1918.
Arrest
He was arrested shortly afterwards by military policemen who assumed he was impersonating a VC winner, but was released when he produced the VC with his name on it.
Kinmel Park
On 7th December he transferred to the Canadian Concentration Camp at Kinmel Park in North Wales and on 20th January 1919 sailed for Canada.
He was declared medically unfit and discharged on 17th February 1919. He had partial ulnar paralysis and suffered recurring headaches from the gunshot wounds received at Passchendaele. Despite his injuries, he resumed farming at Lougheed, Alberta, having been given 160 acres of land by the Canadian Government.
VC Celebrations
Private Cecil John Kinross VC attended the 1929 VC Dinner at the House of Lords and VC Centenary Celebrations in 1956.
He was a confirmed bachelor and was well known for his eccentric behaviour. When he was admitted to hospital for the removal of his tonsils, he insisted on no anaesthetic. On another occasion he was teased about the amount of courage it took to earn a VC compared to jumping in a frozen lake. He promptly took off his coat and jumped in.
Return to Canada
Cecil’s mother died shortly after his return to Canada in 1920.
Cecil’s father died in 1954 and buried at Fairview Cemetery.
Death of Cecil J Kinross VC
Cecil died alone in his hotel room in Lougheed, Alberta on 21st June 1957. He was buried in the Soldier’s Plot of Lougheed Cemetery, Alberta.
Among the pallbearers was Alex Brereton VC.
d. 21/06/1957 in Lougheed, Alberta and buried at Lougheed Cemetery, Wainwright Census Division, Alberta, Canada.
The hotel in which Kinross lived until his death in 1957 also still stands nearby.
Mt Kinross
Mt. Kinross, near Jasper, is named after him, as is Edmonton’s Kinross Road.
Demolition of Dews Farmhouse
The house in England where he was born has, or rather had a historical plaque affixed to it until 2020.
Couple lose seven year battle to save their dream home
(2020) – A couple facing eviction because of HS2 have lost a seven year battle to save their dream home from the bulldozers. Anne and Ron Ryall, who spent years restoring a period farmhouse at Harefield, west London, have been told they must leave on Friday.
Ron Ryall at the period farmhouse he tried to save
The 400-year-old red brick house in the picturesque Colne Valley is on the route of the £106bn high speed railway. The government used a compulsory purchase order to buy Dews Farm because the land is needed for a concrete viaduct.
A removals van was outside today. Mrs Ryall was too upset to talk but Mr Ryall said he was ‘exhausted’ by the legal tussle with HS2. The couple now face having to watch from their new home as their old house is demolished.
Kinross Road
Kinross Road dedicated to Private Cecil John Kinross of the 49th Battalion by the Canada Lands Company on June 23, 2004, as part of their redevelopment of Edmonton’s former Canadian Forces Base (Griesbach Barracks).
Victoria Cross – Edmonton
His descendants donated his Victoria Cross to the people of Alberta in 2015. It is displayed at the mayor’s office in Edmonton.
The War Museum is now home to 36 of 73 Victoria Crosses awarded to Canadians who fought in the Great War.
