| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Daniel Kennedy was born in Beverley in 1891, the youngest son of George Kennedy and his wife Ann, née Buxton. Daniel had four older brothers, Fred, George Henry, John William (who died aged 16 in 1903) and Edward. He also had three younger sisters, Margaret, Annie and Charlotte and the family lived in Hoggards Yard, Keldgate. George Kennedy, had a variety of jobs – a hawker, then an umbrella maker, then a bricklayer's labourer. He died in 1903, leaving his widow with a family of young children.
In Apr 1911 Daniel and his brother Edward were both employed as labourers at the local whiting works. By August of that year Daniel had joined the Army, when he became Private 9651 Daniel Kennedy of the East Yorkshire Regiment. He enlisted in Hull, he went to France with the 2nd Battalion East Yorkshires, who had returned from India in Dec 1914. The Battalion was posted to the 83rd Brigade, 28th Division and after being reviewed by HM King George V on 12 Jan 1915 at Winchester, the Division marched to Southampton for embarkation to France. They disembarked at Le Havre on 16 Jan 1915, where they entrained for the Western Front.
The 28th Division took part in the Battles of 2nd Ypres and Loos, then in Oct 1915 left France for Egypt, thence to Salonika. Daniel remained in France and subsequently served with the 8th and the 1st Battalions of the East Yorkshires although it is not known when his transfer to these units took place. By the opening of the Somme Offensive on 1 Jul 1916 he was serving with the 1st Battalion, East Yorkshires, (64th Brigade, 21st Division). On 14 Jul the Battalion, attached to the 110th Brigade, attacked Bazentin le Petit Wood in the Battle of Bazentin Ridge. Daniel was killed during this attack.
Private Daniel Kennedy of the East Yorkshire Regiment has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Somme, France.
The Kennedy family also suffered the loss of Daniel's sister's husband, George Westwood of the East Yorkshire Regiment, who was killed at Gallipoli on 9 Aug 1915. Daniel's brother, Edward Kennedy of the York and Lancaster Regiment, was killed in Flanders at the Battle of Kemmel on 26 Apr 1918.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |