B/79266 Rifleman Kenneth John La Rose was born on 30 July 1920, in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada. His father Valmas Homer La Rose was French and was a World War I veteran. His mother Violet Mary Middleton was English. Ken had an older brother Walter Homer La Rose. The family were members of the Anglican Church (Church of England).

According to the papers, his father died shortly after the birth of Kenneth, in 1921. Later, however, his mother Violet indicated that he had left the family. Ken was four months old then. She had no idea where her husband was.

Kenneth didn’t think school was that interesting; he preferred to work. He underwent an appendectomy at the age of 12, and from the age of 15, he was active as a farmer on a mixed farm in Lincoln County. At sixteen he underwent inguinal hernia surgery.

On July 1, 1940, Ken reported for military service in Toronto. He was then a healthy 19-year-old bachelor. He had a curved, cut scar of about two inches from the base of his left thumb to his wrist. He had blue eyes and brown hair, was over 6 ft. tall and weighed 161 pounds.

Ken loved ice hockey, according to his registration form. The Lieutenant who interviewed him noted that Ken had a good learning ability. He considered him suitable as a shooter. Almost a year later, in April 1941, Ken indicated that he had ten years of experience as a farmer and that he wanted to go back to work on the farm after his military service.

Family members describe Ken as a kind, caring person with a sense of humour. He was “a bit of a clown”. In any case, he was quite disobedient in the army. He was late regularly, did not dress properly or his clothes were dirty. He was also regularly absent without permission, did not clean up his berth properly, was unshaven or showed insufficient military discipline in any other way. He lost things or did not put them in the right order. He also refused to move his bed once when told to do so.

On October 28, 1942, Kenneth left with his regiment for England, where he remained until June 5, 1944. He landed with C Company at Bernieres-sur-Mer at 08.12 am during the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. The fighting took them through Normandy to Northern France. They fought their way north, entered Belgium and liberated crucial seaports.

At the beginning of October 1944, the regiment entered the Netherlands. The struggle was not easy. In February 1945 the Rifles finally crossed the border into Germany on their way to the Hochwald. In the Hochwald and the Balbergerwald, they were fired at by tanks, hidden cannons and snipers.

As a Sapper, Ken did his share in breaking through or demolishing fortifications, building bridges and roads, laying or clearing minefields and preparing field defences. Saturday, March 3, 1945, was a cold and cloudy day when Kenneth was killed while on his Sapper duties in the Pioneer Platoon. He was 24 years old.

He was buried in the Canadian military cemetery near Bedburg on March 7, 1945. His will stated that he bequeathed all his possessions to his mother.

Kenneth was later reburied at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, grave reference VIII. E. 13. The text on his gravestone:

WHO GAVE ALL
FOR THOSE HE LOVED

Postscript:

His elder brother Walter was a Sergeant with the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the war, he settled on the family’s 80-hectare farm near Wellandport in Ontario. His daughter Dora was born there.

Dora and her husband Bill Bean visited Kenneth’s grave on Sunday, September 24, 2017. On the gravestone, Dora put a picture of her Uncle Ken, a few Canadian flags, and a piece of brick from the farm where Ken had lived with his mother and brother before he enlisted in the army and went abroad.

From Tefke van Dijk, Research Team Faces to Graves.