Kenneth Marshall Ferron

Kenneth's father David Gordon Ferron was born in 1895 in Ballyhenry, Antrim, Northern Ireland, near Belfast. His father was a labourer in a bleach works and David and his older brother were working there in 1911. David emigrated to Canada before the First World War. In 1917 in Toronto he married Jessie Ann Collie, a Scot who was born in Aberdeen in 1896. Her father was a carter and in 1911 Jessie worked as a messenger in a wool mill in Aberdeen. She left for Canada in 1914 and became a bookkeeper in Toronto. David was a teamster and eventually a truck driver with Toronto Hydro.

David enlisted in the infantry in the First World War in January 1918. In the spring, he spent almost a month in a Quebec hospital with influenza. He shipped to England in June and went to France on October 29, two weeks before the end of the war. In May he returned to England and was demobilized in Canada in July. Initially the family lived near Queen and Carlaw but moved to the Beach area in the mid-1920s and finally settled at 620 Woodbine Avenue. Kenneth, known as Kenny, was the fourth child after two boys and a girl: David Jr, born ca. 1918; Rose, born ca. 1920 and Robert, born ca. 1921. Kenny was born May 29, 1923 and remained the youngest child in his family until 1934, when a sister, Jessie Anne was born. His mother unfortunately died on December 9 that year.

Kenny liked sports, especially boxing and hockey. He had pen-pals and enjoyed building models. After graduating from Norway in 1937, Kenny took the general Industrial course at Danforth Tech but also learned welding and at some point took a course by British Admiralty Technicians in ship fitting. He left Danforth after two and a half years and worked for two and a half years for an electrical contractor then left that job to be a ship fitter at the Toronto Shipbuilding Company, which he did for seven months before enlisting.

Norway's graduating Grade 8 Class of 1937. Ken should be in the photo, but his identity is a guess. From: Agnes Mutrie Kerr collection.

His family belonged to St. John's Norway church. Ken was involved in the Beaches Young Men's Bible class and was a member of the committee that organized their successful spring dance in 1940.

David Ferron, Ken and David Jr., circa 1939. From The Canadian Virtual War Memorial.

Ken enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve on June 17, 1943 as a Stoker, 2nd Class. His two brothers had already joined up. David Jr was in the RCAF and Robert had enlisted in the army. On July 9 Ken joined the training ship HMCS Cartier. He arrived at HMCS Cornwallis, in Nova Scotia on August 24. It was the largest training facility in the British Commonwealth, which had a population of 11,000 when at full capacity. There he took stokers' training courses until October 23 when he was sent to the naval base in Halifax. He was assigned to HMCS Regina on November 27.

HMCS Regina. From http://www.readyayeready.com.

The Regina was built in Sorel, Quebec in 1941 and was an anti-submarine convoy escort corvette. When Ken joined the crew, she had spent the previous six months in Halifax being refitted. For the next few weeks, the ship was tested and finally returned to service in February 1944. She was assigned to the mid-ocean escort force as a trans-Atlantic convoy escort and was based in Newfoundland. As a stoker, Ken wouldn't have seen much above decks when he was on duty. Shovelling coal into the engine would have been his main job. Also on board was another Beacher, Ordinary Seaman Frank McCarron, a year younger than Ken who went to Malvern and lived on Glen Manor Drive.

HMCS Regina. From www.forposteriyssake.ca.

During one convoy, the Regina was pulled from duty to escort a Royal Navy tug to the Azores as it pulled a disabled convoy rescue ship. She left the Azores on March 14 to escort a tug pulling a damaged minesweeper to the shipyards on the Clyde in Scotland. At the end of March she was assigned to invasion duties in preparation for D-Day. The ship's base was changed to Greenock, Scotland on the Clyde.

Ken was promoted to Stoker, 1st Class on April 4.

On June 6, D-Day, the Regina was assigned to protect the invading force, circling off shore, watching for enemy submarines. After the invasion, she was used to escort convoys across the English Channel, carrying supplies to the forces on the continent.

On August 8, 1944, the day was calm and the weather was nice. The Regina was helping to shepherd a convoy out of Cardiff, Wales. They were moving at a slow rate. In the evening, 10 km off the Cornwall coast, the Regina shook as one of the merchant ships in the convoy exploded. Initially the merchant vessel was thought to have hit an underwater mine. The Regina slowed and turned toward the ship to pick up survivors. At about 2130 hrs an explosion blew apart the Regina. It hadn't been a mine that had hit the merchant ship, it was a torpedo from a U-boat. That same U-boat, U-667, had also torpedoed the Regina, hitting her engine room and ammunition stores. She sank in 28 seconds. All the men below decks were killed and 30 of the crew of 90 died. Ken's body was never recovered. Ken was 21 years old.

Almost two weeks later U-667 hit a mine in the Bay of Biscay, killing the entire crew.

Every year Ken's father David placed an In Memoriam to him in The Toronto Star. To show the nature of the Norway community, it is interesting to note that another casualty of Woodbine Avenue was William Shearstone whose mother lived at 714 Woodbine. William graduated from Corpus Christi school that was on Edgewood Avenue. His sister was married to Ken Ferron's brother and they lived at 610 Woodbine, in the same house as Edward Knibbs' parents. (Prior to the 1970s, many houses in the Beach were rentals, which were divided into apartments.) William Shearstone was killed 10 days after Ken. Mrs. Shearstone expressed her sympathy for both Eddie and Kenneth with In Memoriam remembrances in The Toronto Star.

The Toronto Star, August 9, 1945.

Flying Officer William Joseph Shearstone (1921-1944). Source: Library and Archives Canada.

David died in 1967.

Ken's name is engraved on panel 12 of the Halifax Memorial.

1914-1939
1918-1945
IN THE HONOUR OF
THE MEN AND WOMEN
OF THE NAVY
ARMY AND MERCHANT NAVY
OF CANADA
WHOSE NAMES
ARE INSCRIBED HERE
THEIR GRAVES ARE UNKNOWN
BUT THEIR MEMORY
SHALL ENDURE