Lieutenant James Lloyd McKenna was the son of Cornelius and Elizabeth McKenna, of Grand Pabos, Gaspe County, Province of Quebec, Canada.

He served with the Royal Canadian Infantry Corps, the 2nd Canadian Parachute Battalion on 1 August 1942 and qualified as a Lieutenant in the parachute regiment at Montana, USA, on 15 August 1942.

After arriving in the UK in June 1944 he was posted to the 11th Battalion on the 10th July.

He took part in the Battle of Arnhem, during Operation Market Garden as second in command (2 i/c) of the Mortar Platoon, Support Company.

He died while serving with the 11th Parachute Regiment as a CANLOAN Officer on 22 September 1944, aged 26 years old.

McKenna was first buried in the garden of a house on Weverstraat in Oosterbeek, before being interred in the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, plot 6.A.9.