One of the Royal Military College cadets who died on campus in Kingston, Ont., last week will be remembered during a Toronto funeral service on Sunday.
At about 2 a.m. on April 29, a vehicle carrying the four officer cadets, all in their graduating year, went into the water off Point Frederick, a peninsula that sits between Kingston Harbour and Navy Bay on the St. Lawrence River.
No foul play is suspected, according to the arm of military police that is investigating the incident, which has appealed to the public for more information.
The four cadets have been identified as Andrei Honciu, Andrés Salek, Broden Murphy and 27-year-old Jack Hogarth.
An obituary published by Hogarth’s family this week in The Globe and Mail said the other three cadets who died alongside Hogarth in the “tragic car accident” were his “dearest friends.”
“The loss of Jack at such an early age leaves all of us who loved him with a deep hole in our hearts,” the obituary reads.
A ‘crack shot’ and avid journal keeper
Hogarth was poised to graduate from the Kingston military college with a bachelor of arts in military and strategic studies at its spring convocation in two weeks.
According to the school’s commanding officer, Hogarth was going to be an armour officer in the Canadian Army, providing reconnaissance and direct-fire support in battle from armoured fighting vehicles such as tanks.
“So near to graduation and pursuing his life’s ambition to serve in the military, there was great promise ahead of him,” his family wrote.
Hogarth kept a daily journal and was an avid reader on politics, military history and current events, his family said. He also enjoyed a wide array of sports and was a “crack shot.”
Hogarth was a “well-respected” graduate of the class of 2013, said Lynda Torneck, a spokesperson for Crescent School, an all-boys elementary and secondary school in Toronto.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” she said in an emailed statement.
Commodore Josée Kurtz, the head of the Royal Military College of Canada, spoke briefly about each of the four army cadets who died Friday, after their vehicle went into the St. Lawrence River. 1:45
Commodore Josée Kurtz, who oversees the college, said as a parent herself she could only imagine the pain for the families of each of the four victims.
“We will continue to provide them the support they need in the tough days and weeks ahead,” she said.
In the obituary, the family thanked the college for providing Hogarth “with the opportunity to follow his dream and for their kind support at this difficult time.”