Five generations of service

Brian McKinstry | Nov 11, 2015

Remembrance Day will have particular significance for Brian and Brenda McKinstry of Arden and their family this year. In the lead up week to November 11th, the McKinstry family are being profiled across the country as having provided military service over five continuous generations from 1917 to the present.

In 1917, conscription for the WWI war effort was in place in Canada. However, William McKinstry, Brian’s grandfather, volunteered for service at the age of 33. Leaving his pregnant wife and son, he was immediately assigned to demolition and trenching duties leading up to the battle for Vimy Ridge which would prove to be a defining moment in Canadian history. Sadly, William was killed in action in the month before the battle and is buried in the Ecoivres Military Cemetery near the Vimy Ridge memorial in France.

The son William never saw, Clifford McKinstry, Brian’s father, recognizing the threat German aggression represented, enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force early on into WWII. Flight Lieutenant McKinstry flew Lancaster bombers with Bomber Command, one of the deadliest and most dangerous assignments of the Second World War. For every 100 Allied airmen who joined Bomber Command, 45 were killed, six were seriously wounded, eight became Prisoners of War, and only 41 escaped unscathed (at least physically). It was a loss rate comparable only to the worst slaughter of the First World War trenches. Clifford returned to Canada after the war and continued to serve in the RCAF until retirement. Of note, Clifford and his wife, Eileen acquired property on Kennebec Lake in the late 1950’s and eventually retired to the lake until ill health necessitated a move to the Kingston area.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Clifford’s son Darrell enlisted with the RCAF in the early 1960’s during the height of the Cold War. With the constant threat of nuclear war from the 1950s to the 1980s, Canadian men and women in uniform served on the front lines of freedom’s borders in Europe, patrolling oceans for submarines and surface ships, watching for and intercepting aircraft flying into North American airspace, and deploying around the world, wherever they were needed. As part of this effort, Captain Darrell McKinstry served throughout the Cold War as an Instrument Technician and eventually an Air Traffic Controller until retirement.

At a time when conflicts became much more regionalized and Canada’s military assumed a role as a NATO peace keeping force, Darrell’s son, Shawn enlisted with the Canadian Army in the early 1980’s and would be assigned numerous engagements throughout trouble spots in the world including the Sinai, Cyprus and Croatia. It was while serving in Croatia in 1993 that Shawn would distinguish himself as part of the 2nd Battalion, PPCLI action in repulsing a Croatian ethnic cleansing effort at the infamous Medak Pocket incident. Shawn currently resides in South Frontenac and now serves as a reserve officer commanding the very same Canadian Army Regiment his great grandfather volunteered to join almost 100 years ago, the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment centered in Belleville, Ontario.

Much to his surprise, Lieutenant-Colonel Shawn McKinstry watched his son Justin enlist in the Canadian Army Signal Corps and be deployed to Afghanistan as a specialist in bomb detection, removal and disposal, thereby establishing a continuous succession of five generations of service to the Canadian military. Upon return to Canada, Justin successfully transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy as a Clearance Diver, and currently is stationed on the east coast.

‘Service before Self’ is the theme for this year’s Remembrance Week. The McKinstry family has demonstrated this concept in the past and continues to exemplify this spirit today.