Harry Marlowe Kennedy

Harry Marlowe Kennedy, A.F.C., C.D.*, was born on August 27, 1904, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he was educated. In 1925 he joined  the Royal Canadian Air Force Officer Cadet Program and during three summer periods earned his pilot's rating and a Commission as a Flying Officer. This was followed by an advanced flying course at Jericho Beach, Vancouver, British Columbia.

In 1928, while flying for the Canadian Air Board, Civil Air Operations, out of  Winnipeg, Kennedy made aerial photographs of many landing facilities in northern Ontario and Manitoba and aerially mapped large sections of Canada for the proposed prairie night-airmail routes. When personnel numbers in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) were reduced in 1932, he joined the Manitoba Government Air Service carrying out forestry patrol flights and fire suppression missions.

Western Canada Airways hired him in the fall of 1932, and he flew airmail along the Winnipeg-Pembina route before transferring to bush operations in the north. In this role he was involved in a number of mercy flights, resulting in the saving of human lives. Northern bush float-flying usually came to a halt in late October, and all personnel were involved in the maintenance program of aircraft repair and engine overhaul in the operational base hangar. Floats were exchanged for skis to be ready for winter flying conditions.

In February 1933 Marlowe Kennedy was ordered to fly a welder and his equipment to Lac du Bonnet, the Western Canada Airways base, in eastern Manitoba, operated by F. Roy Brown. It had been snowing all morning, but eased up in the afternoon sufficiently for him to attempt the trip. However, the snowfall thickened, forcing him to use the power-line as his guide. The snow storm rapidly worsened, resulting in limited visibility, causing him to miss picking up the Lac du Bonnet shore line. While trying to find a shore link to land by, he found himself completely without visual references at low altitude over the middle of the frozen lake. He crashed down onto the ice about half a mile out from the base, completely wrecking the plane. After being treated for their injuries, both Kennedy and his passenger were back working again less than a month later.

In 1934 Kennedy went to work for Mackenzie Air Service at Edmonton, Alberta, operating from bases in the Northwest Territories. There he was involved withMatt Berry in the lengthy, but successful search for two RCAF members, Flight Lieutenant Sheldon Coleman and Leading Aircraftsman J.A. Fortey, downed in an inoperable aircraft during a photographic survey mission to Fort Reliance on the northeast point of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories.

On New Year's Day, 1937, Kennedy made a trip to Eldorado Mines on Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, flying men and supplies into their camp and bringing radium concentrate out to the railhead at McMurray. When Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada, scheduled a visit to Coppermine on the Arctic Coast in August of 1937, Kennedy was selected as pilot because of his extraordinary airmanship and knowledge of the North.

He became one of the first pilots to join Trans-Canada Airlines, where he served until 1940. At that time he obtained leave for war service to re-join the RCAF as a Flight Lieutenant with 12 Communications Squadron at Rockcliffe, Ontario. When he was named Squadron Commander, he envisioned an Aerial Transport Service for the RCAF which eventually became the RCAF Air Transport Command. Kennedy was appointed its deputy commander under the leadership of Z.L. Leigh. These organizational undertakings, coupled with his piloting of the Duke of Kent on a wartime Canadian coast-to-coast tour, resulted in his being awarded the Air Force Cross (A.F.C.) in 1942.

At Pennfield Ridge, New Brunswick, Kennedy helped to create the RCAF's Air Transport Instrument and Night Flying School, and graduated from Staff College. At the end of the war, he was recalled to TCA and remained an airline pilot until he was offered a permanent commission in the RCAF in 1946 with the rank of Wing Commander.

In his new role Kennedy was assigned to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and subsequently was named Deputy Director of Air Intelligence for the RCAF. Later, he was assigned to the Canadian Embassy in Brussels, Belgium, to establish the new post of Air Attache. In 1949 he was appointed Commanding Officer of RCAF Sea Island Air Station at Vancouver.

Three years before his retirement, he was promoted to the rank of Group Captain, and given command of the largest fighter base in Air Defence Command, at St. Hubert, Quebec. He was awarded the Canadian Forces Decoration (C.D.) and Clasp. Kennedy retired in 1956, and died in Vancouver on June 11, 1989.

Harry Marlowe Kennedy was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1979 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.