Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

John Joseph Kendal was born on 25th August 1883 in Sunderland and baptised on 3rd October in Bishopwearmouth. The first born and only son of clerk Robert and Louisa (nee White) Kendal, his younger sisters were Mildred and Hilda. During the late 1890s the family moved into a new house at 5 Leamington Street, Sunderland where John Joseph (known as Jack) attended Bede Collegiate School, and by 1901 he had found work with his father as a coal railway clerk.

In 1911 Jack emigrated to Canada, and in June 1913 crossed the border at Washington and entered the USA. When he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 27th April 1916 in Victoria, British Columbia he gave his address as Tacoma, Washington, USA.

Posted to 11th Canadian Mounted Rifles as Private 16821, Jack sailed with the battalion of 34 officers and 882 men from Halifax on the SS Lapland, arriving in England on 25th July 1916. Posted to camp at Bramshott, Hampshire, Jack made out his paybook will in favour of his mother Louisa in Sunderland. Transferred to the 24th Reserve Battalion on 1st January 1917 and then to the 72nd Battalion on 21st April, Private Kendal joined his new unit in France on 5th May near Berthonval Wood. Just three weeks later he was fined 21 days pay and punished for making an improper reply to an NCO when seconded to a working party.

By 14th June 1917 the Battalion was on the front line preparing for an impending attack on La Coulotte and is was here the following day that Private John Joseph Kendal was killed in action.

Jack Kendal is remembered in Sunderland on S140.17 and S140.048 part 9, page 201

In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.

Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Kendal