James Keith Banks was born on May 5, 1921, the son of Fred Rumohr Banks and Ambrose “Doris” Banks, of 221 Tecumseh Street, Sarnia. He had one brother, Lyle, one sister Betty, and a half brother Vern. Growing up in Sarnia, Keith, as he was known, attended London Road and Devine Street public schools and Sarnia Collegiate, and whose hobbies included cooking and playing the guitar and the mouth organ. Before enlisting he worked in a bowling alley. Keith enlisted in the Canadian Army–his mother signed him up–and he left for training in Chatham and later British Columbia. At the time, Keith was only seventeen years old, single and listed his profession as a labourer. His brother Lyle was 16, his sister Betty was 13, and his half brother Vern was only a couple of months old.
After training, Keith went overseas in January of 1943 as a member of the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, R.C.I.C. He would go on to attain the rank of Lance Corporal. Once while on leave in London, England, Keith got to meet his grandfather and his uncle for the first time. Keith and his mother Doris exchanged letters often (they were edited by the military). Doris told him of the coupon books for food, gas rations, and the things that the radio and newspaper were saying about the war. Keith was paid $1.40 per day, and his first pay cheque sent home was used to pay for his sister Betty’s first two wheeled bicycle, where she became the envy of the neighbourhood. Keith’s letters told of the deaths he saw and the bad living conditions he endured. In his last letter home, one his mother received the day before Keith was to die, he described how, because his Major was killed, he became a Corporal.
On the morning of September 6, 1944, James Keith Banks and his regiment were on first patrol, a reconnaissance toward the town of Isques, between two of the enemy-defended hills. While making their way toward the objective, the patrol came under heavy fire from the hills and was pinned down. Corporal Keith Banks and Major G.D. Sim were severely wounded at this time. While they were pinned down, a relief was assembled and sent out while the three-inch mortars of the battalion plastered the hills. The patrol was successful in extricating itself, but Cpl. Banks and Major Sim did not survive. Their bodies were not recovered until the following day. When they recovered the bodies, 25 prisoners, badly shaken by the pounding they received, were also brought back.
Fred and Doris in Sarnia would receive a telegram during the third week of September 1944 informing them that their son, Lance Corporal Keith Banks was reported missing in action, in France. The next day, they received another telegram, this one informing them that their son Keith was now reported killed in action in France. Keith Banks was later officially listed as, Overseas casualty, killed in action, in the field (France). Twenty-three year old Keith Banks is buried in Calais Canadian War Cemetery, Leubringhen, France, Grave 8.B.7. On Keith Bank’s headstone are inscribed the words, So easily remembered but hard to forget. May God grant you, Keith eternal rest.
SOURCES: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, J, L, N, R, 2C, 2D