John Ernest Genet was born in Brantford, Ontario in 1891 and died in Belleville in 1976. He had a long and rewarding military career and this group reflects much of that including his early years with the Dufferin Rifles, where is father Harry was acting Adjutant at one point. The rest of his career was spent with the iterations of the Canadian Signal Corps. Genet attested in May of 1915, was accidentally wounded in March of 1916 and awarded the Military Cross in December of the same year. He continued to serve through the second world war and on until his retirement in 1946. Brig. Genet passed away at Belleville in 1976. The Genet Building at CFB Kingston is named in his honour.
Included are a number of both large (8 x 10 matted) and small photographs; a caricature of him; training certificates and more. Of greatest interest is the document appointing him a Commander of the Order of the British Empire autopen signed by Queen Mary; a large photograph of someone who seems to be Billy Bishop; his 1913 Dufferin Rifles Commission on linen signed by hand by Prince Arthur, Canada's Governor General at the time and also by Sam Hughes, Minister of Militia; his 1922 P.P.C.L.I. Commission signed "Byng of Vimy" by hand by Julian Byng and also by Major General Eugene Fiset. A very comprehensive collection as the photographs show.
