Corporal James Hendry, GC (1911–1941) was posthumously awarded the George Cross for the gallantry and self sacrifice he displayed on June 13, 1941. He was serving with No.1 Tunnelling Company of the Corps of Royal Canadian Engineers, who had been given the task of digging the tunnel between Loch Spey and Loch Laggan to supply water to the British Aluminium works at Fort William, when a fire broke out in a explosive store near Loch Laggan. The twenty-nine year old ordered his colleagues to run to safety and attempted to extinguish the blaze, rather than attempt to escape the inevitable explosion. The huge blast also killed his colleague Sapper John MacDougall Stewart,[1] and seven more were injured.
He was buried[2] in Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey. The Royal Canadian Engineers dedicated their range control building to the corporal in recognition of his bravery in 1994.[3] In August, 2008, a memorial cairn honouring Cpl. Hendry was unveiled at Loch Laggan near where he was killed.[4] The ceremony was attended by his last surviving brother, William Hendry, of Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Corporal Hendry was born in Falkirk, Scotland on 20 December 1911[5] to parents John and Janet Hendry. The family lived in Geraldton, Ontario before the war with several working in the local gold mines.