My grateful thanks to Paige Roberts, Director of Archives & Special Collections at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts for invaluable help in finding information about Andover students in WW1
Kenneth Rand was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 8th May 1891. His parents were Alonzo Turner Rand (1854–1925), President of the Minneapolis Gas Company, and his wife, Louise Casey Rand (1861–1891).
Kenneth’s early years were spent travelling in Europe. He was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he was a member of the Mandolin Club and wrote for their student publication – “The Mirror”.
After graduating from Phillips Academy, Kenneth went on to study at Yale University from 1910, where he majored in English literature, was a member of the Elizabethan Club, served as chairman of the board of the Yale Literary Magazine, as literary editor of the “Yale Courant”, contributed to campus humour magazine “The Yale Record” and was the class poet.
American author and literary scholar George Henry Nettleton (1874–1959), who became Professor of English in Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School in 1916, called Rand's class poem, written as a senior, an unconscious prophecy.
The years have dropped behind us,
The years run out before,
The testing world shall find us
Full weight—we trust—and more.
Kenneth published three volumes of poetry and his poems were published in literary magazines of the time, including The Bellman, The Argosy, Lippincott’s, Snappy Stories, Sport Story Magazine, Picture-Play Weekly, Top-Notch, and The Smart Set.
When war broke out Kenneth tried to enlist. He volunteered for the Navy and all available Army branches, including the Aviation Corps, Infantry, and Artillery, and even attempted to enlist in the Canadian Army, but was rejected because of his poor eyesight. He was eventually able to enlist in the Quartermaster Corps, and was stationed at Camp Meigs in Washington DC. Recommended to be sent for training as an officer to Camp Joseph E. Johnston, the main Quartermaster mobilization and training camp but after only 60 days at Camp Meigs he contracted influenza - during the great "Spanish flu" pandemic of 1918. He was sent to Walter Reed Hospital, where he died on 15th October 1918.
Kenneth's body was sent home to Minneapolis, where he was buried in uniform in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis. Plot: Sec 2, Lot 414, Grave 4.
The poet Harold Crawford Stearns, a classmate in Rand's graduating class at Phillips Academy, commemorated Rand in a poem entitled “Vale, Kenneth Rand.” It concluded:
Oh, Kenneth, how could dreams like ours be false?
Our Avalons, our bright Hesperides,
Our Inds, our islands washed by tropic seas
All faded … faded … echoes of a waltz…
You go (O world he reaches, hold him dear!);
I stay, to tend the embers falling here.
Works by Kenneth Rand:
"The Dirge of the Sea-Children and Other Poems" (Boston, Sherman, French & Company, 1913)
"The Rainbow Chaser and Other Poems" (Boston, Sherman, French & Company, 1914)
"The Dreamer and Other Poems" (Boston, Sherman, French & Company, 1915)
In his poem “Straw-Death”, Kenneth describes his regret at the prospect of dying in a sickbed instead of as a man of action. His final poem, “Limited Service Only”, was written a few days before his death. That poem was found in his uniform and at the time was considered one of the genuine poetic expressions of patriotism written during the Great War. The War Department published the poem on 2nd December 1918, along with a preface praising the "limited service men" who sought active service but because of physical limitations or other reasons were denied the privilege of joining the combatant forces of the United States.
“Limited Service Only”
I am not one of those the gods' decision
Has chosen for that highest gift of all –
The sacrifice, the splendor, and the vision –
To fight, and nobly fall:
And yet I know – what though it be but dreaming!
Should the day hang on some last desperate hope,
I – I – could lead one reckless column streaming
Down some shell-tortured slope.
To face the shadow-hell of Death's own Valley
With eyes unclouded and unlowered head –
Know, for an instant, one ecstatic rally
And then be cleanly dead.
Sources: Wikipedia and
https://ww1sacrifice.files.wordpress.com/2017/06/memorial-bell-tower-rededication-programme.pdf
