Private William Kennedy

Private William Kennedy, 11th ( Service ) Battalion, Royal Scots. He was killed in action in France on 9th April 1917, aged 28, during the first day of the Battle of Arras. He was the son of George and Helen Kennedy of Cleughside, Newcastleton and is buried in Bailleul Road West Cemetery, St. Laurent-Blangy, Arras, France. He had worked as a shepherd before enlisting in December 1914 and he had been wounded on the Somme in July 1916 returning to his Battalion in January 1917. The Battalion gained all its objectives up to and including ” Obermeyer trench” at the cost of 100 casualties including 4 Officers killed. He had been born in Ewes, Dumfriesshire, enlisted in Galashiels and had resided in Newcastleton. The photo shows British soldiers accompanied by a tank in the main street of a captured village near Arras. ( tanks were sitting ducks in enemy held villages and towns where they could be attacked from above and from the sides ).

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