George Faber KENNEDY

Regimental number1010
Place of birthCoolgardie, Western Australia
ReligionChurch of England
OccupationClerk
AddressHunt Street, Montana, Coolgardie, Western Australia
Marital statusSingle
Age at embarkation19
Height5' 8.5"
Weight145 lbs
Next of kinMother, Mrs Mary Jane Leehy, Hunt Street, Montana, Coolgardie, Western Australia
Previous military serviceServed in the Senior Cadets, Coolgardie area; left the distrtict.
Enlistment date14 December 1914
Place of enlistmentHelena Vale, Western Australia
Rank on enlistmentSergeant
Unit name28th Battalion, C Company
AWM Embarkation Roll number23/45/1
Embarkation detailsUnit embarked from
Rank from Nominal RollSergeant
Unit from Nominal Roll28th Battalion
FateDied of wounds 20 September 1917
Age at death from cemetery records20
Place of burialNo known grave
Commemoration detailsThe Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial (Panel 23), Belgium

The Menin Gate Memorial (so named because the road led to the town of Menin) was constructed on the site of a gateway in the eastern walls of the old Flemish town of Ypres, Belgium, where hundreds of thousands of allied troops passed on their way to the front, the Ypres salient, the site from April 1915 to the end of the war of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

The Memorial was conceived as a monument to the 350,000 men of the British Empire who fought in the campaign. Inside the arch, on tablets of Portland stone, are inscribed the names of 56,000 men, including 6,178 Australians, who served in the Ypres campaign and who have no known grave.

The opening of the Menin Gate Memorial on 24 July 1927 so moved the Australian artist Will Longstaff that he painted 'The Menin Gate at Midnight', which portrays a ghostly army of the dead marching past the Menin Gate. The painting now hangs in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, at the entrance of which are two medieval stone lions presented to the Memorial by the City of Ypres in 1936.

Since the 1930s, with the brief interval of the German occupation in the Second World War, the City of Ypres has conducted a ceremony at the Memorial at dusk each evening to commemorate those who died in the Ypres campaign.

Panel number, Roll of Honour,
  Australian War Memorial
113
Miscellaneous information from
  cemetery records
Parents: George and Mary Jane KENNEDY, Montana, Coolgardie, Western Australia
Family/military connectionsStep-father: 4241 Pte Patrick LEEHY, 11th Bn, killed in action, 25 July 1916.
Other details

War service: Egypt, Gallipoli, Western Front

Embarked Alexandria with Bn for Gallipoli, 4 September 1915. Admitted to 7th Field Ambulance, 15 October 1915 (enteric); transferred to 15th Casualty Clearing Station, 16 October 1915; embarked HS 'Delta' for Alexandria, 16 October 1915; admitted to 21st General Hospital, Alexandria, 20 October 1915; transferred to Montasah Red Cross Convalescent Camp, 6 December 1915; to Helouan Convalescent Camp, 6 January 1916; discharged to duty, 14 January 1916.

Embarked Alexandria, 2 june 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 12 June 1916.

Found guilty, 14 August 1916, of being absent without leave from 2400, 13 August, until reporting at 1300, 14 August 1916: reprimaned, and forfeited 1 day's pay.

Promoted Acting Company Sergeant Major, 18 November 1916; reverted to rank of Sergeant, 5 January 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France (date not recorded); rejoined Bn, 3 March 1917.

Died of wounds received in action, Belgium, 20 September 1917.

Medals: 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal