James R.H. Kirkpatrick

James Kirkpatrick was born in New Hamburg and graduated from Royal Military College with honours in 1938. He entered law school that same year.

In 1939, he joined the Navy and was overseas by June 1940 on loan to the Royal Navy where, as a Lieutenant-Commander, he led one of two flotillas of motor torpedo boats crewed by Royal Canadian Navy ratings, patrolling the English Channel and the North Sea. He was awarded the D.S.O. and remained active with the peacetime Navy, attaining the rank of Captain.

In 1942, he married his English war bride, Winifred, who predeceased him by one year. He graduated from Osgoode Hall in 1945 and practised law briefly in Kitchener before being appointed a magistrate in 1950. He served as a judge of the Ontario Provincial Court (Criminal, Juvenile and Family Divisions) until 1991. He was concurrently a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo, Galt, Preston and Hespeler Police Commissions and of the Waterloo Regional Police Service Board for 42 years.

His volunteer work included serving as a Member and Chairman of the Ontario Cancer Treatment and Research Foundation; as President of the Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ Association and the Association of Municipal Police Governing Authorities; he was also the Honourary President of the Big Brothers Association of Kitchener-Waterloo, the K-W Naval Veterans’ Association and the Galt Naval Veterans’ Association.

In 1991, his contribution to the community was recognized when the new J.R.H. Kirkpatrick Building, headquarters of the Waterloo Regional Police, was named after him – for which he was greatly honoured. He’s been described as wise, fun, sportsmanlike, fair, supportive and, as one colleague said, “the clearest person with words I have ever known.”