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Shrewsbury Kenneth Oldham

Name:
Kenneth Oldham Shrewsbury
Rank:
First Lieutenant
Serial Number:
Unit:
Kosciuszko Squadron
Date of Death:
1964-02-19
State:
West Virginia
Cemetery:
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
Plot:
Row:
31
Grave:
7057
Decoration:
War Order of Virtuti Militari (Poland)
Comments:

Born 26 July 1892 in Charleston, West Virginia Graduated from Amherst College and was a law student at Harvard University before enlisting as a Private in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Signal Corps. Assigned as an Air Service supply officer at Tours, France. He later ferried planes from England to the continent before joining the Polish Kosciuszko Squadron during the Polish-Russian War from 1919-1920. He passed away in Washington D.C. as a COL of the U.S. Army
Excerpt from page 23 of the book "Flight of Eagles: The Story of the American Kosciuszko Squadron in the Polish-Russian War, 1919-1920," by Robert F. Karolevitz and Ross S. Fenn. Brevet Press, Inc., Sioux Falls, South Dakota: 1974:
The dapper, mustached graduate of Amherst College had been a law student at Harvard University before he enlisted as a Private in the Aviation Section of the U.S. Signal Corps. His stops along the way also included M.I.T., Mineola Field and Issoudon. His law training got him sidetracked from flying for much of his A.E.F. service as he was assigned as an Air Service supply officer at Tours, France. Prior to the Armistice, however, he escaped his desk job and returned to the cockpit, ferrying planes from England to the continent. Before being invited to enlist in the Polish adventure, Shrewsbury and [his fellow volunteer] Crawford were about to embark on an automobile tour of Europe, financed largely by the latter's backlog of pay which had accrued during his German imprisonment."

From the Ny Times Obituary February 1964:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 —Kenneth Oldham Shrewsbury, a former member of McClellan and Shrewsbury, New York lawyers, and a reserve officer in the Army Air Force in both World Wars, died here Wednesday of a heart attack suffered while shopping. He was 72 years old.
Mr. Shrewsbury, after serving in World War I as a lieutenant, was one of eight Americans who volunteered to help Poland fight Russia. In 1921, at a special ceremony in the Polish Embassy here, he received Poland's highest decoration. At the ceremony were Poland's former Premier Ignace Paderewski and General of the Armies John J. Pershing.
Mr. Shrewsbury was graduated from Amherst College in 1914 and from Harvard Law School in 1921.
He practiced law in New York until 1941 when he returned to service in the Judge Advocates General's Offices at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, and the Pentagon. After his retirement in 1946 as a colonel, he joined the legal department of the Veterans Administration here.
He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Anassa Sterrett Shrewsbury; two sons and five grandchildren.