Reference code: GB99 KCLMA Kennedy
Title: KENNEDY, Adm Francis William Kennedy (1862-1939)
Dates of creation of material: 1914-1916
Level of description: item level
Extent: 1 file of papers
Born 1862; educated Uppington and Royal Academy, Gosport, Hampshire; Mid on HMS SULTAN during the Egyptian War, 1882; Lt on cruiser HMS PHOEBE, 1895-1898; took part in the capture of M'Weli (Mwele), East Africa), 1895; served with the Benin Expedition, East Africa, 1897; Cdr, 1898; Cdr on HMS VIVID, with command of VALIENT, a depot ship for torpedoboat destroyers, and the Fleet Reserve at Devonport, 1898-1904; Capt, 1904; commanded cruiser HMS MEDUSA, 1905-1905; commanded light cruiser HMS THETIS, 1905; commanded battlecruiser HMS INDOMITABLE, 1912-1916; participated in the shadowing, chase and escape of the german battlecruiser GOEBEN and its companion ship BRESLAU by the British Mediterranean Fleet, Aug 1914; the bombardment of the Dardanelles, Nov 1914; the Battle of Dogger Bank, Jan 1915, including the sinking of the German battlecruiser BLUCHER and towed home V Adm Sir David Beatty's disabled Flagship HMS LION; the Battle of Jutland, May 1916, where Kennedy assumed command of 3 Battlecruiser Sqn following the death of R Adm the Hon Sir Horace Hood; R Adm, 1916; in charge of Peterhead area off east coast of Scotland, 1917-1919; promoted V Adm and retired, 1920; Adm, 1925; died 1939.
Placed in the Centre by the family in 1966.
The collection mainly comprises papers relating to Kennedy's post as Capt of the RN battlecruiser HMS INDOMITABLE during World War One, including personal narratives of the shadowing, chase and escape of the German battlecruiser GOEBEN and its companion ship BRESLAU from the British Mediterranean Fleet, Aug 1914, an extract from a letter by Kennedy to his family describing the first bombardment of the Dardanelles, Nov 1914, and an extremely brief personal reminiscence of the Battle of Jutland, 31 May 1916. There is also intelligence information taken from survivors of the BLUCHER, a German battlecruiser sunk at the Battle of Dogger Bank, 24 Jan 1915, including details of damage done to the ship, various intelligence reports concerning the whereabouts of Austrian, Italian, French and German warships in 1915, and a brief account of training undertaken by the British Mediterranean Fleet, 1913-1914.
Arranged chronologically.
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the College Archivist.
English.