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Remembered Today:

17th Bn (British Empire League) KRRC


brummell

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Can any KRRC enthusiasts shed light on the raising of 17/KRRC? I have the bare-bones facts and the war diaries but am particularly interested in the link to the British Empire League (which raised various other units as well) and any geographical recruiting links.

In researching Old Boys of my school I found that five boys joined 17/KRRC at the same time, a few months after the BEL began raising the battalion - three as officers (the first three boys to be commissioned directly from the school, as it happened) and two as soldiers, although one was appointed a Corporal and the other Lance Corporal on enlistment.

The fact that five boys joined the same battalion together, three of them as officers, suggests to me that there was some kind of link between the school and the battalion, either through the BEL, through a recruiting area or through a personal relationship. One can't discount the strong possibility, of course, that one of them decided he wanted to join the battalion and the other all went with him.

However, the school was in Camberwell. The school journal records that the school's OTC paraded on Camberwell Green with ‘...detachments from the Camberwell Division RFA, KRRC, 20th London National Reserves and National Volunteer Reserve in a great demonstration in honour of Lt Col Whitehead on his appointment to the command of the 17th KRR.’ This leads me believe ​that there was some kind of recruiting link to Camberwell or that part of South London more widely.

Anyone got any knowledge on this?

- brummell ​

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The fact that five boys joined the same battalion together, three of them as officers, suggests to me that there was some kind of link between the school and the battalion, either through the BEL, through a recruiting area or through a personal relationship.

How many boys attended the school OTC?

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johnboy,

I don't know exactly, but in July 1913 it had dwindled to 57 boys. The average for a school of its size was 90. In July 1914, the OTC report in the journal reported a steady increase, so I would guess at 65-70 or so at the outbreak of war. By December 1914 the corps had doubled in size and had to 'close its doors' to new recruits for the time being!​

The five young men in question here were in the corps prior to the outbreak of war.​

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KRRC was held in high regard. Could there have been a family connection? Have you got their service records?

Did similar numbers of them join another Regiment?

Sometimes a look at social/family history can give clues.

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Most of the boys only recently out of the school joined the regiments one would expect - battalions of the London Regiment for the most part, particularly 1st Surrey Rifles, London Rifle Brigade, Queen's Westminsters, etc.

1st Surrey Rifles seems the most obvious choice as it was headquartered half a mile away from the school, had links into the school's Rifle Club and a steady trickle of old boys had joined it for decades. Yet our five decided on 17/KRRC.

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I think I wrote quite a long topic on the BEL and the KRRC about 5 years back. I'll see if I can find it.

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Brummell,

The Pals have just done a large amount of work on 2/Lt Alfred J BAILEY, 17/KRRC, an Old Wilsonian, KiA 03 Sep 1916

:poppy:

Mills 6.JPG

Details are here: Can you help with information on this young soldier?

Alan has been in touch with the school - see the Topic for more info.

Cheers,

Mark

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Mark,

Thanks for your reply. I first saw this photo last week - it was I that did all the research on Alfred Bailey a few years ago, which the headmaster sent on to Alan. I had no idea that the photo and the work to identify him had come from this forum though! I must PM Alan to thank him. 'Bill' Bailey was one of the three boys commissioned straight from school that I have mentioned in this thread.

Another, K.T. Spinney, was killed in the same action as Alfred and is buried in Knightsbridge Cemetery. The third, F. L. Brown, ended the war as a Staff Captain, MC and Bar and went on to a good career in the Colonial Office.

Attached is a photo of the Senior Prefects in April 1914. Alfred is standing on the right. F. L. Brown is seated on the left. Unfortunately I lack a photograph of K. T. Spinney, which I would dearly love. The young man to Alfred's right is V.G.F. Shrapnel, a descendant of Major General Henry Shrapnel, who served in 8/East Surreys and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial.

Thank you for your part in identifying the photograph.

- brummell

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Unusually 17/KRRC's war diary starts ab origine in Blighty, not on Embarkation.

I assume you have this first entry covering the authority to form the Battalion and its initial location ...

post-20192-0-50373000-1439919408_thumb.j

Battalion HQ at Norfolk House, Laurence Pountney Hill, EC4 was the offices of the British Empire League.

Norfolk House shows up in searches up till the 1960's, but I'm unsure if it still exists. Much of that area around Cannon Street has been re-developed.

Drilling took place in Devonshire House, Piccadilly, which was the London home of Spencer Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, who was President of the British Empire League, and in Green Park directly opposite.

Devonshire House was demolished in 1924. It stood on the N side of Piccadilly opposite the NE corner of Green Park just across from The Ritz. Parts of Green Park Underground Station use the old cellars.

The men were billeted in Pimlico a mile or so to the S.

Lord Cowdray is Weetman Dickinson PEARSON, head of what is now the Pearson publishing conglomerate, but which was then principally involved in Civil Engineering and Construction.

Paddockhurst was Pearson's estate in Worth, near Crawley, Sussex and is now Worth School.

Edit: I am still looking for definitive links between Pearson and the British Empire League, but the BEL patrons list reads like a Who's Who of the Great and the Good of the day, so he is likely to have at least been well known to the BEL Executive, even if not involved directly himself.

The Army & Navy Stores is the well-known department store in Victoria - I think it's now a 'House of Fraser' clone.

Edited by MBrockway
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The school journal records that the school's OTC paraded on Camberwell Green with ‘...detachments from the Camberwell Division RFA, KRRC, 20th London National Reserves and National Volunteer Reserve in a great demonstration in honour of Lt Col Whitehead on his appointment to the command of the 17th KRR.This leads me believe ​that there was some kind of recruiting link to Camberwell or that part of South London more widely.

Anyone got any knowledge on this?

- brummell ​

Lt.-Col. WHITEHEAD, V.D., had been the Commanding Officer of the 1st Surrey Rifles (21/London Regt), which unit you'll already be very familiar with.

Edit: actually the KRRC Chronicle merely lists him as "late of the 1st (V.B.) Surrey Rifles", so he may not have been the CO.

Presumably with the award of the Volunteer Decoration he had been active in the VF and later the TF for some time and would have been very well known to all these units around Camberwell.

I would suggest it was Whitehead's influence that probably drew your Old Wilsonians into 17/KRRC, his battalion. He almost certainly knew them through the school OTC.

I'll see if I can track him down in the Army Lists, but sometimes VF officers are hard to find.

Edit: Can you advise whether Wilson's Grammar School OTC was affiliated to the First Surrey Rifles? In the other Topic, we discovered nearby Dulwich College were.

Edited by MBrockway
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Here's Whitehead's appointment as CO 17/KRRC gazetted 30 Apr 1915...

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[LG Issue 29150, p.4240, 30 Apr 1915 - https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/29150/supplement/4240]

17/KRRC War Diary entry for 05 Dec 1915 ...

"LtCol. L. Whitehead relinquishes temporary commission on vacating command on account of ill health"

This has been appended out of chronological sequence at the foot of a page.

An entry higher up the same page records t/Lt.-Col. E.F. Ward assuming command of the battalion on 13 Dec 1915.

This seems to the sequence of the various changes in command while Whitehead was sick ..

19 Apr 1915 - Lt.Col. WHITEHEAD appointed CO of the new btn and recruiting commenced in London (see above)

28 Jun 1915 - Btn HQ moves from London to PADDOCKHURST to join the rest of the men in camp

01 Sep 1915 - Btn moves from Paddockhurst to HURSLEY PARK, WINCHESTER

25 Sep 1915 - Capt. A.C. OPPENHEIM, DSO (att. from 5th Londons (LRB) for light duty) assumes officiating command in the absence of Lt.Col. L. Whitehead on sick leave.

29 Sep 1915 - Btn moves from Hursley to ALDERSHOT with rest of 117 Bde.

30 Nov 1915 - Lt.-Col. SLADEN, CMG (attached for light duties) assumed temporary command on Capt. Oppenheim proceeding overseas

05 Dec 1915 - Whitehead vacates command

10 Dec 1915 - Maj. A.J. METHUEN assumes officiating Command vice Lt.Col. Sladen

13 Dec 1915 - t/Lt.-Col. E.F. Ward assumes command of the battalion

As an aside, I note in both War Diary and LG, that a t/2/Lt Lewis E. WHITEHEAD is posted into the btn from 5th London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade). Could this be Whitehead's son?

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Mark,

So far as I know there was no formal link to 1st Surrey Rifles, although as I say above, their HQ was on Flodden Road, about half a mile from Wilson's. The school was granted an OTC by the War Office only in 1910; I suspect Dulwich College's corps was far older and would in any case be rather more prestigious than that of a 'mere' grammar school.

Although I haven't completely crunched the numbers yet, I strongly suspect that 1st Surrey Rifles will have received the largest number of Old Wilsonians over the course of the war, presumably because of the Camberwell factor. I think your suggestion that the link between the men under discussion here and 17/KRRC was through Colonel Whitehead is an intriguing one. I think the Commanding Officer would have had to approve any men who applied for a commission into his battalion, and the fact that he did so for three such young men - 17 years old, straight out of school - supports your idea. I will have to comb through the OTC reports from its earliest days to see what it tells us.

Thanks for the details on the BEL and Colonel Whitehead's service - I have the 17th's war diaries and had seen these details, although the Duke of Devonshire's presidency of the BEL is interesting and explains the Devonshire House connection.

It was indeed Colonel Ward who took the battalion over to France. I have the text of the letter he wrote to Alfred Bailey's parents when Alfred was killed.

- brummell

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I'm continuing to unravel Lewis Whitehead's career.

Up until the 1911 Annual Army List (prepared in late 1910), he is listed under the 21st London Regt. (First Surrey Rifles) as Major, honorary Lt.Col., with seniority as a major dated from 17 Sep 1904. He appears to be the 2 i/c, not the Commanding Officer!

He retires on 11 Oct 1911 as per this LG entry ...
post-20192-0-26933400-1439931148_thumb.j
[source: LG Issue 28540, p 7379, 10 Oct 1911]

His grant of honorary Lt.-Col. was gazetted on 24 Mar 1908 effective 22 Jan 1908.

His Volunteer Decoration was gazetted on 12 Sep 1905. The Award Criteria for the V.D. were twenty years' service in the VF, so he must have entered the battalion before Sep 1885

This appears to be his Death Notice in The Times from 27 Apr 1940 ...

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Since Kingswood is in the Surrey Mid Eastern registration district, this appears to tie up with a death registered in Surrey Mid Eastern RD in Q2 1940 of a Lewis WHITEHEAD aged 78 yrs. The age could well be a transcription error by the FreeBMD volunteers, though "in his 79th year" would mean he was 78 years old.

There was a birth for a Lewis WHITEHEAD registered in Newington RD (Southwark) in Q3 1861. I don't have Ancestry access at the moment, so I cannot corroborate with any census or other genealogical data, but this could be a birth and death for the same man.

Whatever, the data from The Times would put the colonel at approx 53 yrs old at the outbreak of the war.

Incidentally, I note 21/London Regt (First Surrey Rifles) had a 1/KRRC Regular officer, Capt. Henry Brewster Percy Lion KENNEDY, attached as their Adjutant from 01 Sep 1913. He would have been in post when your boys left school.

There was a great tradition in both the KRRC and the Rifle Brigade of supporting city Boys' Clubs. It seems highly likely this would extend to an adjutant from the KRRC being interested in the progress of his attached OTC cadets, particularly as he was an older man commissioned in 1898 and a Boer War veteran.

There seems to have been strong links between First Surrey Rifles and the KRRC. The uniform and badge traditions of the Surrey Rifles were based on the KRRC - very similar cap badge and rifles dress - and of course their roots were in the Rifle Volunteers. They may well have felt more in tune with the KRRs than with a county Line Regiment like the East Surreys despite their formal affiliation pre-1908.

Henry Kennedy may also have been a factor in your boys enlisting into the KRRC. Be aware of course that as johnboy states higher up, the KRRC and the RB were elite regiments of high esteem, but with perhaps less of the stuffiness and pretensions of the Guards etc. ( ... dons his tin hat :whistle: )

This could have been very attractive to boys from Wilson's Grammar School.

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Mark,

So far as I know there was no formal link to 1st Surrey Rifles, although as I say above, their HQ was on Flodden Road, about half a mile from Wilson's. The school was granted an OTC by the War Office only in 1910;

- brummell

Do you have any contemporary photos of the Wilson's Grammar School OTC that show their cap badges clearly? Or the crests on their drums?

That would tell us immediately which regiment they were attached to.

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Attached here. I know for a fact that the CCF at the school has much better ones. I had thought that the OTC wore its own badge, a version of the school arms, but I may be wrong. I have no knowledge of whether this was permitted by the War Office at this time. It looks like it to me - a simple shield with ribbon below.

Either way, the badge worn here doesn't look to me like a rifle-regiment type, such as 1st Surrey Rifles, KRRC or LRB wore.

post-37693-0-94928900-1439944793_thumb.j

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Attached here. I know for a fact that the CCF at the school has much better ones. I had thought that the OTC wore its own badge, a version of the school arms, but I may be wrong. I have no knowledge of whether this was permitted by the War Office at this time. It looks like it to me - a simple shield with ribbon below.

Either way, the badge worn here doesn't look to me like a rifle-regiment type, such as 1st Surrey Rifles, KRRC or LRB wore.

Quite right! I was forgetting that many of the school OTCs used a variant of their school arms as their badge.

This looks like a shield above a scroll. Definitely not a KRRC-style maltese cross, nor Surrey Rifles, nor an RB-style maltese cross inside a wreath, nor the star of the East Surreys.

They are at least wearing rifles buttons though :-)

Edit: can you see the cap badge of the adult in the background wearing the patrol jacket, also with rifles buttons?

Edited by MBrockway
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Andrew Read currently has this nice crisp photo of a Wilson's School OTC cadet in stock on fleaBay ...

(hope it's OK with the Mods to show this? I've deliberately not hyperlinked it back to the Lot for sale)

$_57.JPG

685428112_WilsonsSchoolCadet(eBay-AndrewReadbugeye)-WMed.JPG.85bd165dfe2595f189636ef0f0141da8.JPG

[© Andrew Read]

Here's a detail of the cap badge with Keith Rawlings' sketch shown alongside.

1. post-20192-0-17746900-1439982787_thumb.j 2. post-20192-0-25737200-1439982810_thumb.j

1. [source: OTC Badges and Shoulder Titles - Keith Rawlings pamphlet]

2. [© Andrew Read]

Rawlings is clearly missing the scroll, but his sketch makes it much easier to make out the elements of the badge in the photo.

The portrait also shows the rifles buttons very clearly.

Edited by MBrockway
link repaired
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Yes, that's the old school badge. I believe it was in use until around the 1960s when the school cadet forces were transformed. The CCF then became affiliated to the Queen's Regiment and wore its badge and accoutrements. But as you say, the rifles buttons are interesting - clearly there was a link of some kind to one of the rifle regiments - presumably 1st Surrey Rifles or the LRB, as we have been discussing.

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Lewis Whitehead appears with address 20 Elms Road, Clapham, SW in the Post Office Directories for 1908-1916 (which is all I've checked so far).

This is about 3 miles from Camberwell, so easily in range. There is an Elms Road in Dulwich much closer, but he's definitely at the one in Clapham.

No indication on his civilian occupation as yet.

Perhaps a Pal with Ancestry access could check him in the 1911 Census at this address?

There's a building contracting firm called Whitehead Lewis & Walter Ltd in South Lambeth SW8, but I have not yet been able to establish any connection back to Lewis Whitehead. The company name would typically suggest three men in partnership with those surnames, so I don't see this as a strong lead yet. However I'm not discounting the possibility of two Whitehead brothers, Lewis and Walter.

Whitehead Lewis & Walter Ltd were at Portland Place North off the N side of Clapham Road approx 400m N of Stockwell tube station. Now re-developed under a large GLC housing estate. It was roughly where modern Hampson Way now lies.

Certainly within easy reach of both Camberwell and Clapham.

Speculating wildly :whistle: , if Lewis Whitehead was the proprietor of a large building firm, that could explain the link to Weetman Pearson (Lord Cowdray) and Paddockhurst. Pearson was involved in several major construction projects in London at this time including the Blackwall Tunnel. As I stated above though, the BEL executive was packed with very prominent citizens (including Winston Churchill) so networking at a national level is a more likely explanation of Pearson's offer to use Paddockhurst for the battalion's training camp. The footprint of the Whitehead Lewis & Walter Ltd site in SW8 on the map is not large, so they do not appear to be a huge concern.

Another possibility that you could investigate is Whitehead being a schoolmaster. If none of the Pals manage to get an occupation from the 1911 Census, then perhaps worth eliminating with the Wilson's School archivist that there was no Lewis Whitehead on the staff?

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1911 Census

20 Elms Road

Lewis Whitehead aged 49yrs Building Contractor {Managing Director]

Son Lewis Edward Whitehead aged 16yrs Student

Son Frank Leslie aged 12 yrs Student

Had a governess and a servant.

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On 19/08/2015 at 17:09, johnboy said:

1911 Census

20 Elms Road

Lewis Whitehead aged 49yrs Building Contractor {Managing Director]

Son Lewis Edward Whitehead aged 16yrs Student

Son Frank Leslie aged 12 yrs Student

Had a governess and a servant.

On 19/08/2015 at 14:54, MBrockway said:

There's a building contracting firm called Whitehead Lewis & Walter Ltd in South Lambeth SW8, but I have not yet been able to establish any connection back to Lewis Whitehead. The company name would typically suggest three men in partnership with those surnames, so I don't see this as a strong lead yet. However I'm not discounting the possibility of two Whitehead brothers, Lewis and Walter.

On 18/08/2015 at 20:49, MBrockway said:

As an aside, I note in both War Diary and LG, that a t/2/Lt Lewis E. WHITEHEAD is posted into the btn from 5th London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade). Could this be Whitehead's son?

Many thanks johnboy!

I guess that confirms both the son and the Lambeth building firm!

brummell - any possibility that Lewis Whitehead, Jnr could be an Old Wilsonian?

 

Edited by MBrockway
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1881 Census

33 Coldharbour Lane

Shows his father aged 19 yrs Builders Clerk

His grandfather Oil Merchant.

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Captain Henry KENNEDY, 1/KRRC, is perhaps just as likely to have been a strong influence on the boys at Wilson's School. While Adjutant leading up to the War, he quickly became the First Surrey Rifles's CO and it was he who took them out to France.

He ended the War as Brigadier-General Henry Kennedy, CMG, DSO

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A short biog of him by John Bourne at Birmingham ...

"Henry Brewster Percy Lion (‘Kid’) Kennedy was the son of Vice-Admiral J J Kennedy CB.

He was commissioned in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps on 15 October 1898. He soon saw active service in South Africa, where he served not only with his regiment but also on the staffs of Lieutenant-General Sir W Pitcairn Campbell and Major-General F D V Wing.

The remainder of Kennedy’s pre-war military service was somewhat anodyne, but on 1 September 1913 he was appointed Adjutant 21st Battalion London Regiment (‘1st Surrey Rifles’) TF. It was a fateful posting. He was still Adjutant of 21st London when the war broke out. He became the battalion’s CO on 1 March 1915, the day before its parent division, 47th (2nd London), was warned for service in France. Kennedy commanded 21st London until 16 May 1917, winning a DSO in 1916.

On 18 May 1917 he was promoted GOC 140th Brigade, 47th Division, and commanded it for the rest of the war. He was 38. Kennedy was unusual in spending the entire war with the same division and, by the end of the war, was the longest serving officer in it.

His promotion did not change him. He retained the instincts of a regimental soldier. He visited his front line daily and maintained an open contempt for the ‘staff’. He refused to wear the red tabs of a brigadier-general, commenting caustically that ‘once a man has put on red tabs it is only a matter of time before he becomes a *******’.

His demeanour was always cheerful, sociable and energetic.

Rowland Feilding, who became a battalion commander in 140th Brigade in August 1918, wrote to his wife that he had ‘never met a more companionable man than Kennedy’.

Feilding immediately detected the ‘family feeling’ in 140th Brigade that was ‘so necessary for a successful war’. Before Feilding’s first attack as CO 15th London, Kennedy sent him two bottles of Veuve Cliquot 1906 that he had acquired during the German Spring Offensive. Feilding described the gift as typical of Kennedy’s thoughtfulness and generosity. (Equally typically, Feilding passed the champagne to his company commanders, who passed it on to their sergeants. Kennedy’s influence evidently ran deep in his brigade.)

Unlike many Regular officers, especially those in Territorial formations, Kennedy was prepared to trust his subordinates. Feilding recalled being woken during the middle of the night by a telephone call from Kennedy with instructions for an attack the following morning.

‘Got your map?’ asked Kennedy.

‘Yes, General,’ Feilding replied.
‘See line so and so?’

'Yes, General.’

‘Well, you start from there at 8 a.m.. Your objective is this line …. [giving a further line of map readings].’

Then he rang off.

‘He never fusses, thank God,’ Feilding commented, ‘and he leaves all details to the men whose duty it is to do the job. And that, I venture to think is the proper way to fight battles.’

Brigadier-General Kennedy remained in the army after the war, serving with the British Army of the Rhine until 1924, when he went on half pay. He retired on 1 June 1927. He was Honorary Colonel of 21st London from 1922 until 1932."

John Bourne, Centre for First World War Studies, Birmingham University

[As a quick aside, I don't think the willingness to trust TF subordinates was that unusual in the KRR's - Capt. F.W. "Gasper" Parish followed a similar course to Kennedy being attached from the KRRC as Adjutant to the 15th London Regt (Civil Service Rifles) and later returning as t/Lt.Col. CO of 1st Btn. I suspect exactly the same attitude prevailed with him. His re-vitalisation of the battered battalion between Messines and Passchendaele was certainly noted as being remarkable. Perhaps such trust is down to the rifles tradition of expecting the individual rifleman to use his own initiative. A product of being required to operate isolated in small numbers skirmishing ahead of the Line.]

As well as the DSO and Croix de Guerre, he also received multiple MiDs throughout the War and was made CMG in 1918.

He rejoined the service in WW2 serving as a King's Messenger.

Edit: Inserted Kennedy's seniority and War Service here for convenience...

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Kennedy, an Old Etonian and ex Sandhurst, was also a keen hunter and an remarkable sportsman. He apparently represented England vs Canada in Field Hockey (I have found no corroboration for this as yet though) as well as being an excellent horseman and polo player. He was well known for his habit of visiting his brigade's battalions in the line by bicycle!

Clearly a very dynamic and charismatic individual.

Hard not to see him as being very influential on the boys at Wilson's School, whether that caused them to enlist into his regiment, the KRRC, or into his battalion, the 21/LR (First Surrey Rifles).

Edited by MBrockway
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Many thanks johnboy!

I guess that confirms both the son and the Lambeth building firm!

brummell - any possibility that Lewis Whitehead, Jnr could be an Old Wilsonian?

Very possible - it's the right part of town and very much the kind of background that Wilson's boys came from. The school doesn't have an archivist as such, but I have contacts there that may be able to look into this (after the school holidays).

There was a W. Whitehead who served with the RFC/RAF during the war and was an OW - Walter perhaps...? Unfortunately I have no more information on him than that.

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