Humfrey Hayes Kennedy was born on 19th January 1882 in Middlesex. His father was a Metropolitan Police Magistrate at Marlborough Street. Humfrey was at Harrow School from 1896 to 1900.
On 6th February 1901 (aged 19) he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Militia with 3rd Battalion, the Gordon Highlanders. By 1st April he was training at Aldershot with 3rd Gordon Highlanders Imperial Yeomanry. He then served in South Africa during the Boer War on attachment to 3rd Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment. The war ended in May 1902 and on 28th January 1903 (Army List) he transferred fromthe Militia to the regular army, becoming a Second Lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, the Duke of Albany’s).
In June 1904 he was seconded for service with the Indian Army. In August 1905, having been a Supernumerary Second Lieutenant, he became an established Second Lieutenant. He was initiated as a Freemason on 12th June 1907 in Nowshera. He was awarded the 1908 North West Frontier clasp to the India General Service medal, whilst serving with 1st Battalion of The Seaforths, which was in India from 1903 to the start of the Great War. On 1st April 1908 he was promoted to Lieutenant (Army List). In the April 1911 census the battalion was at Chaubattia in northern India. In December he took part in the Delhi Durbar, which was attended by King George V and Queen Mary, to celebrate their coronation and allow them to be proclaimed as Emperor and Empress of India.
On 5th June 1912 he was seconded for service under the Colonial Office with the Nigeria Regiment of the West Africa Frontier Force where he was promoted, on 7th September 1914, to be local Captain and in November, to be a substantive Captain (see Army List).
He left the Nigeria Regiment on 13th August 1915. (Army list 1917) He was invalided home from there in March 1915. (Harrow memorial.) On 3rd December Humfrey was promoted from Captain to temporary Major (Army list) and attached to the 16th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (1st Bradford Pals) as second in command. This battalion had been formed in September 1914 as a part of the Citizens’ Army League and did not become part of the actual army until May 1915. There were still shortages of equipment in the army generally and the battalion had obsolete rifles until September, so it was not until December 1915 that they were sent overseas.
Three days later the battalion started moving (only the officers knew the destination) and in late December it arrived in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal against possible attack by the Turks. It then moved to France in early March 1916. The Commanding Officer was taken ill and hospitalized in April. Humfrey was in command from then until 24th June when Major Guyon of the Royal Fusiliers arrived and took over, as a temporary Lieutenant Colonel. However, Guyon was killed in action a week later on 1st July, within minutes of the start of the first day of the battle of the Somme. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial,100 miles from Calais. The following day Humfrey became a temporary Lieutenant Colonel again (Army list). In the four days from 30th June the battalion lost (killed, missing or wounded) 22 out of 24 officers and 483 out of 750 other ranks from those who went into the line. (It was the practice at that time to leave about ten percent of the strength out of the line as a core to reform a battalion if necessary.)
On 21st August HHK was the president at Field General Courts Martial of Private Herbert Crimmins and Private Arthur Wild (The Bradford Pals Ralph N Hudson p133/136 gives transcripts from National Archives WO71/495 and 496). Crimmins and Wild had been absent from 2.00pm on 30th June to 1.00pm on 4th July 1916 when they gave themselves up to Military Police. They had been detailed to carry supplies in the evening but went off drinking in the afternoon, missing the big attack. Both were found guilty of desertion and sentenced to suffer death by being shot, with a strong recommendation to mercy for Wild on account of recent shellshock and a recommendation to mercy for Crimmins on account of his exceptionally good character. These recommendations were ignored by the higher commanders.
It was not until 24th August the news was received by the battalion that Humfrey was to be a temporary Lt/Col (war diary) (in The Bradford Pals by Ralph N Hudson p54 this is given as an acting rank, rather than temporary.)
On 29th Jan 1917 Major AC Croydon joined the battalion and took command. Humfrey relinquished command and reverted to Major from Temporary Lt Col (War diary and service record)
[There is some confusion here over dates. Hudson in Bradford Pals on p60 says Humfrey left the battalion in January to command the 6 Bn of his own regiment the Scottish Rifles – this is incorrect as the battalion war diary of the 2nd Seaforths (his regiment ) shows him as a company commander and Captain on 2nd March.]
On the morning of 27th February two companies of the battalion were in an attack against the Germans in Rossignol Wood (15km SW of Arras) and the other two were in support. The wood was much more heavily defended by machine guns than expected and the attack was unsuccessful. 4 officers and 157 other ranks were killed or wounded and 66 other ranks were unaccounted for. Half of these unaccounted men had only joined the battalion during January or February. 43 bodies were later recovered, identified and buried on 4th March in a communal grave in a new cemetery, one of several cemeteries near Hebuterne.
A Court of Inquiry was held on 15th March with statements from various witnesses. Humfrey had already left the Division by then but had given a written statement. As second in command of the battalion, he had been in charge of the forward troops. (The commanding officer’s report to Brigade in the war diary says the second in command was forward but does not name him.)
Humfrey: “About 6.30am I saw a party of about 10 men … they had their hands up and were evidently trying to surrender. At the time this occurred I was not certain whether they were British or German… I did not open fire as I would have done had I known they were British and thus stopped them. They disappeared from view in a dip in the ground…” “The light was not good enough to distinguish.” [if any NCOs were in the party].
The enquiry found: “61 were missing were from A company on the right and 5 from B company on the left. Both companies had come under heavy machine gun fire and that it was practically impossible to move or get up to the wood [their objective]. Sgt 16/214 W Dennison and about 16 men of A company went across and gave themselves up to the Germans. That Sgt Denison is responsible for the surrender of his party.”
The Divisional commander concluded: “I consider Sgt Denison was responsible for the surrender of his party. I am further of opinion that Maj Kennedy showed lack of judgement in not firing on this party.” This goes further than the findings of the inquiry who did not blame Kennedy in any way. The rules for a court of inquiry which may affect the character or military reputation of any officer or soldier say that he must be given the right to be present throughout the inquiry and to give evidence and cross-examine witnesses (Manual of Military Law – Courts of inquiry). This clearly was not possible for Sgt Denison and Major Kennedy had been moved away.
Denison had been an original member of the battalion. At the time he appears from the medal records to be a Lance/Corporal acting as a Sergeant who was not confirmed in this rank until 1919 although the war diary and POW records show him as a sergeant.
On 29th March the DA&QMG of the fifth army issued an order: “During recent fighting a NCO and 15 men of a Battalion which was heavily engaged deserted to the enemy. These men were seen crossing over to the enemy with their hands up and without arms, but were not fired on by our troops. It should be made known to all ranks that if men are seen crossing over to the enemy they should be fired on at once, and that men who surrender without sufficient reason or who desert to the enemy, will be tried after the war and shot.” War diary p137
Now a captain, HH Kennedy rejoined the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders (his own battalion) on 2nd March 1917, “Detached from 16th West Yorkshire” according to their war diary, although the Army List shows him leaving the West Yorkshires on 5th March.
He then received leave from 17th to 27th March and on his return he became the officer commanding D Company from 30 March
He was wounded on 3 May in the Battle of Arras. He was taking part in an unsuccessful attack near Roeux (6 miles East of Arras) which was driven back to the starting trenches. All officers taking part had become casualties, including the commanding officer and his staff, leaving a company sergeant major to take charge until an officer arrived from the transport lines and two other officers from the divisional reserve. In the battalion there were 135 casualties on that day alone, with 100 more later in the month.
Humfrey was invalided home, where he remained on light duty. During this time he was married on 14th July 1917, in London, to Noelle Evelyn Campbell George (the widow of William King George) who was living in the parish of St John’s, North Holmwood. He was living in Mayfair.
On 7th October, he again became a temporary major and the following day an acting Lt Col commanding 8th service battalion of the Seaforths until 20 October (Army List)
On 14 Dec 1917 he was attached to the 6th Battalion of the Cameron Highlanders as second in command (Monthly Army List June 1918) and, on 28th January 1918, he was promoted to substantive Major. There is little mention of Humfrey in the 6 Cameron war diaries (which do not include lists of officers) except on 4 and 5 February when he issues orders as a Major and the commanding officer, and also on 11 and 13 May so he was taking command in the temporary absence of the commander.
On 16th May 1918 he again took command of the 8th (Service) Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders two days after the previous commander was admitted to hospital and on 29 May was again made an acting Lieutenant Colonel. On the 28th July the battalion was at Buzancy, near Soissons, and took part in an attack which was initially successful but was later driven back when the flanks became exposed. It lost 8 officers and 133 soldiers killed, wounded or missing but did capture 7 officers and 240 soldiers. The following day the battalion was heavily shelled by the Germans (mainly with gas), and Humfrey was killed by the explosion of a stray shell, one of only ten casualties that day.
He was buried later at the nearby Raperie British Cemetery, Villemontoire, (about 170 miles from Calais), which was made, after the Armistice, by the concentration of other graves from the area.
Humfrey left an estate of £2,144. Noelle lived in Dorking, first at Inholms House, Stonebridge and later at Chart Cottage. She moved to Australia in July, 1924 with Humfrey’s brother, Gilbert Lyon Kennedy, and her two children from her first marriage. Noelle and Gilbert married on 4th August 1928. Gilbert was a merchant navy officer before the war and had served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. He had previously been married. He had lived at Eutrie, Holmwood and in 1913 had admitted in court that his dogs had severely injured two sheep on nearby Inholms Farm.
They continued to live in Western Australia until Gilbert died in 1945 and Noelle died in 1955.
Sources: “Bradford Pals”, Raws, gives history of the 16th and 18th battalions
“The Bradford Pals”, Ralph N Hudson gives a history of the 16th and 18th battalions including transcripts of the courts martial trials of Crimmins and Wild.
The War Diaries of 16th West Yorkshire Regiment at the National Archives (WO 95/2362/1 and WO 95/2362/2) give accounts of the action at Rossignol Wood and transcripts of the Court of Inquiry and its findings.
| Born | Middlesex | |
| Lived | Mayfair, London | |
| Husband of | Noelle Evelyn Campbell George | |
| Regiment | 8th (Service) Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders | |
| Date of Death | 29th July 1918 | |
| Place of Death | France | |
| Cause of Death | Killed in Action | |
| Age | 36 | |
| Cemetery | Raperie British Cemetery, Villemontoire |
