About Kin

Chartered: July 5, 1947
Incorporated: June 2, 1959

The founder of our Association was H.A. (Hal) Rogers. Founder Hal was born in London, Ontario on January 3, 1899. For a time he worked in a bank before moving to Hamilton to take up employment in his father’s plumbing sales business.

The family business did not prevent seventeen-year old Hal from enlisting in 1916. Hal Rogers had a distinguished military career with his regiment, the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. Hal was gassed at Paschendaele and later wounded by shrapnel near Amiens. He carried some German steel in his right leg.

Hal returned to Canada in 1919 along with thousands of his fellow soldiers. After re-entering the plumbing business, Hal applied for membership to the Rotary Club but was rejected. Since his father was a member, the Club already had a plumbing salesperson representing that vocation.

Rotary’s loss was our gain. Hal decided to start his own service Club. As Hal saw it, young men should preserve in peace the ideal of service to Canada. Encouraged by his father, Hal invited 11 young men to the Namking Cafe in Hamilton to start the first Kinsmen Club.

This first Kinsmen meeting was held on February 20, 1920 and from there the Association grew. Hal served as President from 1920 – 1923. He kept his interest in the Association in spite of moving to Toronto and starting his own career as owner of a publishing house.

During World War II, Hal chaired the Kinsmen “Assistance for Britain” committee and was instrumental in the Milk For Britain program. In 1948 he was made an “Officer of the British Empire”. In 1959, he was made a Life Member of the Association. This was presented to Hal in Prince Albert by a prominent past Kinsman, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. In 1980, Hal was made a member of the Order of Canada in Ottawa.

On September 15th, 1994, Founder Hal passed away at the age of 95 years. The life of the Canadian nation has been enriched by the good idea of “Kinship” spread and served by Founder Hal Rogers 0.B.E., 0.C.

A craving for fellowship caused Hal Rogers to assemble a group of young men in what was to become the first Kinsmen Club. The group soon realized that fellowship alone was not enough to keep them together so they adopted the idea of service to others as a second reason to continue meeting. From the choice of fellowship and service as goals of Kinsmanship, the Association has become a success story.

Because of enthusiasm and job transfers, the founding members had formed four Clubs from Montreal to Vancouver by 1924. The idea of Kinsmen caught the imagination of many young men and by 1927 there were twelve Clubs. During the great depression the Association grew quickly providing fellowship and community service in troubled times.

During the 1930’s Clubs began to become structurally organized with Districts and a National Executive. The declaration of war in 1939 led to another challenge to the existence of Kin as many young Canadian men enlisted. The Association also gave by promoting projects such as Milk For Britain, selling Kinsmen War Saving Stamps, Magazines for Marines and building the first mobile Army Dental Clinic.

After the war, the Kinsmen Association continued to grow and adopted even more ambitious projects. In 1949 the Association set up a Cancer Scholarship Fund to help train doctors in treating the disease. Assistance to flood and hurricane devastated areas of the country, and beyond, demonstrated the Kinsmen commitment to the community.

Dedicated to fellowship and service, helped the Association grow to over three hundred Clubs and ten thousand members by 1956. The Association experienced continual growth and expansion up to the late 1970’s. During this era, Kinsmen garnered a great public profile through the founding and construction of the Kinsmen National Institute on Mental Retardation.

In 1975, the Association passed the five hundred Club mark with a vigorous and dedicated membership. Hal Rogers received the Order of Canada for his contribution in founding the only all-Canadian service Club.

Kinsmen today, along with Kinettes, support Cystic Fibrosis research Nationally and have promoted much publicity and fund raising to try and defeat this disease. Kin Canada does more service than all other service Clubs in Canada combined. Kin raise more service dollars per capita than any other service group in the world. This figure annually exceeds the twenty million dollar level.

The members of the Kin Association of today can be proud of the contributions to Canada and our communities we have made over the years. Kin Canada will continue to grow based on the foundations of service and friendship.