3776842 Pte Leslie Kennedy 1st Bn Kings Liverpool Regt 18/4/1944

Hi All

Just doing some research on Pte Kennedy above who is commemorated on the Wantage War Memorial in Oxfordshire (then Berkshire) and sadly has no known grave being commemorated on the Rangoon Memorial.

Its my belief that he was a member of the Chindits taking part in Operation Thursday but would like some confirmation of this and what exactly the 1st Bn Kings Liverpool Regt were doing during April 1944. Am aware there will probably be a war diary at Kew to look at but won't be going there for a while so if anyone can give the movements of the battalion at this time to help with the fate of Pte Kennedy I would be grateful.

Many thanks
Trevor


https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2514063/leslie-kennedy/

 

Expect you already have this but If its any help he is listed here as a Chindit with 1st Bn Kings Liverpool (77 Ind. Brigade).
CHINDITS 1944 - Kennedy, Leslie

 

Hi Trevor,

From what I can see, Pte. Kennedy does not feature on any of the missing listings for Operation Thursday, so it must be presumed that he was confirmed as killed/died on or just before the 18th April 1944 in Burma, but that his body/burial was never recovered after the war.

The month of April was an in-between time for the 1st King's, who had up until then been used to patrol the Chindit airstrip codenamed Broadway after the airborne invasion of early March. By early May, both King's columns were ordered north to assist with the defence of the Blackpool stronghold, with Broadway being closed down shortly afterwards. The King's columns were ambushed around the 19th May on the way to Blackpool and 100 or so men were separated from the main body and ended up with Mike Calvert and fought at Mogaung.

That's all I can add really. If you do not have one already, please find below, a photo of Pte. Kennedy's name on Face 5 of the Rangoon Memorial.

 

Dear Both
Thank you for your helpful replies.

Its interesting that Private Kennedy does not feature on any of the missing lists for Operation Thursday. He is one of the names on the Wantage memorial that there is sadly not much info about. I believe it was a wartime whirlwind romance with a local girl Dorothy Rose who worked as a Storewoman at the RAF Stores Milton. Leslie Kennedy who was aged 22 when he married her in Feb 1943 was from Douglas Isle of Man. Think he was stationed in the North Berks area at the time. He left the area shortly after the marriage and was not seen again. There is another 1st Kings Liverpool Regt man who also married a local girl at around the same time in Wantage, however I believe he survived the war. He was also from the Isle of Man and was John William Gill.
Cheers
Trevor

 

The only thing that I can add is that he was a passenger in glider 15P on the 5th March 1944, the same glider that carried Lt. Col. R. P. Fleming.

I have him listed as KiA.

15P

Short Tow, port side (with P14) allocated to 77 Bde HQ personnel. 6 Officers, 7 B.O. R’s 1 I.O.R.

Following Officers arrived H.Q. having returned from glider crash:

Mjr Pringle. R Colin. Royal Signals. Signals Officer 77th Bde,

Mjr Faulkner. George Vermil Yea. M.D.C.M., B.A. Indian Medical Service (M.716) (Bde M.O.).

Capt Massey,

Lt Mallory,

Capt. Hepburn

accompanied by the following B.O.R’s:

6986035 Fus. (Sgt) McMurdo. Thomas Rex. 1/Lancashire Fusiliers.

3776842 Pte Kennedy. Leslie. 1/King’s Regt. KiA 18/04/1944

8724 Sgt Rendell,

1115232 Gnr Kemp. Robert Norman. Royal Artillery.

1496 Pte Young,

Man Sang,

0296 L/Cpl Henson,

3579 (Tathie) Dattu Bhosle. Mahrattas.

F/O Bance Williams USAAF,

Lt-Col R Peter Fleming,

2586187 Sgm Thomas Angus, Special Forces Signals, RCS. (Drowned11/03/1944)

The full report can be found in Appendix 1 of Michael Calvert's Prisoners of Hope.

 

John William Gill appears on the 1945 A Coy, Dehra Dun photograph. I do not have an Army Number for him. He married Doreen Harris in Wantage during the September quarter of 1942.

 

Casualty List entry.

 

Many thanks for the additional info. Where would I find a copy of the 1945 A Coy Derha Dun photo please?

 

It can be found on this thread.

1st Bn The King's Regiment, (Liverpool), Chindits.