Somerset student Izzy Frail, a Grade 7 French immersion student at Kings County Academy in Kentville, completed an Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education Heritage Fair project on her great-great uncle Donald Kendall, who died in October 1942 in the camps in Hong Kong, and is interred in Sai Wan Cemetery.
Frail completed her project in French and was selected as one of eight students nominated from her school to attend the regional heritage fair, where, as one of only three French students presenting, she was awarded the Biography Award. Her project generated considerable interest as she presented to the judges in French, and to the community at large in English during open viewing. Her project was also visited by other military and war presenting students, and even one or two community members who also had familial connections to the Hong Kong camps.
One of the most shocking parts of her project, which her genealogist mom had not noted before, was that Donald’s parents, Anick and Bertha, were not notified Donald was in the camp from the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941 until later in 1942, after he had already died.
The Frail family were appreciative for the support of members of the Hong Kong Veterans Canada Association Facebook group, especially Marilyn Puffer Wright, who provided a photo of her father’s diary which recorded Donald’s death date; and also to the many family historians who have worked before Frail in gathering much of the primary source material used in her project.
Frail was asked what her favourite resources were in her research, and she stated it was the podcasts she had listened to. Thanks to the Juno Beach Centre for the episodes which featured heavily in the information she gathered.
