Legion of Frontiersmen (New Zealand) Command

KERR, John Chipman

49th Infantry Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War

Legion of Frontiersmen, Canada (Spirit River, Alberta Command)

CITATION

Victoria Cross

London Gazette, No. 29802, 26 October 1916

For most conspicuous bravery. During a bombing attack he was acting as bayonet man, and, knowing that bombs were running

short, he ran along the parados under heavy fire until he was in close contact with the enemy, when he opened fire on them at

point-blank range, and inflicted heavy loss. The enemy, thinking they were surrounded, surrendered. Sixty-two prisoners were

taken and 250 yards of enemy trench captured. Before carrying out this very plucky act one of Private Kerr’s fingers had been

blown off by a bomb. Later, with two other men, he escorted back the prisoners under fire, and then returned to report himself for

duty before having his wound dressed

BIOGRAPHICAL

John Chipman Kerr was born in Fox River, Nova Scotia, on 11 January 1887. In 1912, after working as a lumberjack near

Kootenay, British Columbia he bought a homestead in Spirit River, Alberta, where he and his brother farmed until war broke out.

Immediately they set out for Edmonton, leaving only a single note tacked to the door of their humble shed. It read: "War is Hell, but

what is homesteading?"He served with the 49th Infantry Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War. Kerr

earned the Victoria Cross near Courcelette in France on 16 September 1916during the latter stages of the Battle of the Somme. As

first bayonet man in a bombing party advancing to attack German positionswith hand grenades, he was 30 metres ahead of his

comrades when he found himself exchanging grenades with the enemy.Although wounded, Kerr continued forward and compelled

62 of the enemy to surrender. At the beginning of the Second World War, Kerr joined the Army once more, later transferring to the

Royal Canadian Air Force. He died in Port Moody, British Columbia on 19 February 1963. In 1951, a 2,600-metre peak in the Rocky Mountains was named after him. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Canada.

AWARDS

Victoria Cross

British War Medal

Victory Medal

Canadian War Service Medal

War Medal 1939-45

Coronation 1937

Coronation 1953

-Unknown-

NOTES

Born 11 January 1887, Fox River, Nova Scotia, Canada

Died 19 February 1963, Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada