The son of Mr. and Mrs. William Kitchen of James St., Chatham, ON. Wiliam was married and had two sons and two daughters and was living on Grant St., Chatham.

He enlisted with the 1^st Kent Regt. but transferred to the Essex Scottish to go into active service in 1940. In January of 1945 he had returned home on ‘compassionate leave’ after being overseas for two years. While overseas he had fought in France and Belgium since 1944 with the 2^nd Canadian Division and had taken part in the retaking of Dieppe during heavy fighting along the French coast.

 It was reported in the CDN 16/12/44 that Cpl. Kitchen was returning home on a thirty day leave, part of the newly-inaugurated rotation plan, just in time fore Christmas 1944.  Interviewed for the CDN 18/01/45 he recounted that, “We suffered our heaviest losses and found the going toughest at Caen [France] and a small town near that district called Ifs. There we fought the real German soldier who is plenty hard to handle. But later when the Huns began their retreating the fighting was less sever and among the many prisoners taken were soldiers of many nationalities.”   

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Sources

CFF-FD44, IODE(P), CCI-RH, CDN 16/01/44, CDN 16/12/44, 17/12/44, 18/01/45.

Birthplace	London, Ontario
Religion	Anglican
Marital Status	Married
When Enlisted	July 29th, 1940
Next of Kin	Wife- Mrs. Dorothy M. Kitchen

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