| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Edward Kennedy, the son of George and Ann Kennedy of Hoggards Yard, Keldgate, was born in Beverley in 1889. He had four brothers, Fred, George Henry, John William (who died in 1903) and Daniel and three sisters, Margaret, Annie and Charlotte. Their father died in 1903, leaving his widow without financial support and a family seven children, five of them school-age. By 1911 Edward and his brother Daniel were both working as labourers at the local whiting works.
Edward Kennedy enlisted at Beverley on 9 Nov 1914 in the 2nd/5th (Reserve) Battalion, Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment. He spent the next eighteen months in England, including three weeks helping with the harvest in Sep 1915. After being posted to the 1st/5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, Edward embarked aboard the ship 'Golden Eagle' at Folkestone for Boulogne on 7 Jul 1916. He spent ten days at the Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, before being transferred to the York and Lancaster Regiment, then on the 9 Sep 1916 he was posted to the 1st/4th (Hallamshire) Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment, 148th Brigade in the 49th (West Riding) Division.
In 1915 the Kennedy family received the sad news that George Westwood, who was married to Edward's sister Margaret, had been killed on 9 Aug at Gallipoli. More bad news arrived in 1916 when they suffered the loss of Edward's brother, Daniel, who was killed on 14 Jul during the Battle of Bazantin Ridge, Somme. Edward was gassed in Sep 1916 while serving on the Somme and was gassed a second time on 22 Aug 1917 during 'Operation Hush' at Nieuport on the Flanders Coast. Then on 9 Oct 1917, the opening day of the Battle of Poelcapelle (3rd Battle of Ypres), he was wounded yet again.
In the spring of 1918 the 49th Division was engaged in various phases of the German offensive on the Lys. They were inspected by the Prime Minister of France, Monsieur Georges Clemenceau, on 21 Apr 1918 along the Poperinghe-Vlamertinghe Road. On 26 Apr during the Battle of Kemmel, the Hallamshires moved at very short notice to the front line (Cheapside Line) on the Hallebast-Vierstraat Road. It was here during a heavy bombardment Lance Corporal Edward Kennedy was killed, carrying out his duties as a stretcher bearer. He has no known grave and his name is inscribed on the Memorial to the Missing, Tyne Cot Cemetery, Zonnebeke, Ypres, Flanders.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |