 | February 2011: A number of minor adjustments were made to many of
the pages on the web site, based on dribbles of information that had
arrived during 2010. A major addition was made to the web site with
the addition of a new page called Pension
Record. This additional information was the result of the submission
of a Access to Information Request Form to Veteran's Affairs Canada
in early 2011. Similar records retrieved by other CEFSG members (Canadian
Expeditionary Force Study Group) had shown that these records might
contain additional information pertaining to service in the Great War. As
the new page shows, the request resulted in receipt of all of the details
pertaining to Grandfather Kennedy's attempts to obtain a Service Pension
for tuberculosis he claimed was the result of gas exposure at Ypres
in 1915 and hardship as a POW in 1918. The claim was declined at both the
First and Second Hearings in 1938 and 1939. Grandfather Kennedy also
joined the Twitter Community on February 22, 2011 at http://twitter.com/JosiahACKennedy.
|
| January 2010: I have added the records that were received from
the International Committee of the Red Cross that pertain to Grandfather
Kennedy's internment records in the German Prisoner of War Camps. These
can be found on the POW page of this web site.
|
| July 2008: All the new information, photographs and records
related to brothers William and James Kennedy, both of whom were killed in
action in the Great War, has been added to the Genealogy
Page. The availability of this information also required correction of
the information held at the U.K. National Archives and the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission. Reports were sent to each of those agencies and
I am pleased to report that the records have now been updated and are
correct as now shown. The inclusion of this additional information,
allowing for the corrections, would not have been possible without the
assistance of Kennedy family and other Great War Researchers in the UK and
Canada. Those contributions are recognized on the revised genealogy page
of this web site.
|
| March 2008: It has been some time since we added new
information to this site, but here it was St. Patrick's Day 2008 and just
prior to that date I get an e-mail from my 2nd Cousin Richard Kennedy in
Belfast. He has been researching Great Grandfather Prof. Rev. S. G.
Kennedy and came across this web site. One thing led to another and
work was started to look for the missing brother "James
Kennedy". A strategically placed post to the Great War Forum
resulted in a few answers that not only are leading to the identification
of James, but turned up photos of William and Josiah. As such we
have changed the Main Page and greatly updated
the Genealogy Page, where we have also added
the Family Tree. More work to follow in the next few days.
|
| October 4, 2006: To commemorate my Mother's birthday this
Friday (Josiah Kennedy's only daughter: Maureen
Montgomery Kennedy, October 6, 1921) I have updated the information as it
relates to her Father and my Grandfather's service record on the "Great
Canadian War Project" site and made the corrections on this
site. This includes correction of some dates and the addition of his
service with the 16th Infantry Battalion (Canadian Scottish), which it
appears may have been just a "passing through" phase of his
career. Every visit to the site reveals changes and corrections, so
please bear with me on this project. Also, please do not hesitate to
submit questions, comments or corrections on any aspect of this site.
|
| August 27, 2006: The web site was reviewed to update and correct
the information that had previously been posted. In addition, the
layout of the site was modified to make it easier to use and to accommodate
a wider variety of computer screens.
|
| April 5, 2006: The pages for the Princess Patricia Canadian
Light Infantry and the Royal Irish Rifles have been updated. We also
broke out some of the original information on these pages and this
introduction, to prepare a "Service
Record Summary" which you will find in the main menu buttons as
well. We will be back when new information becomes available or time
permits the start of the transcription of grandfather's prisoner of war
diary.
|
| April 4, 2006: We have just received the report that we
commissioned from Chris Baker, a war historian in the UK. With this
in hand, and the considerable knowledge that has been gained working on
the "Canadian
Expeditionary Force Matrix Project", we have adjusted the
reports on this site. You must note that the dates that are in the
text of the report from Chris Baker not agree with the reports that are in
other records, including those that were received with the report.
We have, however, include a PDF version of the Baker
Report for all to review. Also provided at the attachments that
Chris provided from the UK National Archives (see Baker
Archives). I have added many notes to the archive files with the
new Adobe Acrobat 7 to allow the reader to follow the flow of the
documents. If you are not clear on the structure of the CEF during
this period of Grandfather Kennedy's service, please visit the Matrix
Project Navigation for complete details.
|
| August 21, 2005: We have added the references to the
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry as reported in Nicholson's
text "Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War".
As there are a number of scanned pages and this is a "work in
progress", we have placed these on a separate page (see links on
the left) called Nicholson.
The actual PDF documents are in a separate folder, for those that want to
download the text in bulk (Nicholson
PDF files) without referring to the story line.
|
| August 13, 2005: Grandfather Kennedy's military record has
been summarized and added to the Canadian
Great War Project database and web site. You can retrieve the
summary military record at: J.
A. C. Kennedy and I would also point out that corrections are not only
welcome but anticipated.
|
| August 2, 2005: We have downloaded and converted the war
diary for the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry for 1914-1916 from
the Library and Archives Canada web site. We have reduced the file
from 35 meg to less than 5 meg and enhanced to images so that they can be
viewed in PDF format. For details see our LAC
page.
|
| July 2, 2005: Thanks to Ian
Bowbrick the "Lost
Generation 1418" forum, we have additional information of J A C
Kennedy with the Royal Irish Rifles, which has now been updated at the R.I.R on this site. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to
Ian for taking the time to retrieve this information while at the PRO (U.
K. National Archives - see also this site).
|
| June 30, 2005: Forum members have found additional
references to Grandfather Kennedy in the London Gazette by searching
alternate initials and cross referencing information on the Medal
Index Card against related issues of the LG. These have now been
posted to the London
Gazette page on this web site.
|
| June 13, 2005: We have retrieved three records of J. A. C.
Kennedy from the London Gazette, all of which related to his temporary
promotions to Acting Lieutenant and Acting Captain in the Royal Irish
Rifles. We have created a new page on the website for these
documents at London
Gazette and posted the records as PDF files.
|
| June 8, 2005: The files have been received from Library and
Archives Canada, scanned and posted to the web
site. They tell an interesting story of Grandfather Kennedy as a
Private in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (P.P.C.L.I.),
as he amassed a fortune at $1.00 per day and dealt with some serious
"men's health problems". These records only take us to the
time of his recovery from surgery in England and his transfer to the
Imperial Army.
|
| May 22, 2005: We have now inserted the information from
Michael Thierens as it relates to grandfather Kennedy's
records from the U.K. National Archives. In addition, we have
added the background information on the family ties between the Stephenson
and Kennedy families, as it relates to the in-laws service in World War
I. The exploits of the infamous "Uncle Tom" (a centurion)
are of interest, details of which we still must extract from the London
Gazette. For further information on this, see the Genealogy page of
this web site (Genealogy
Page).
|
| May 16, 2005: Coincidental with the 90 year anniversary of
the wounding of Pte. J. Kennedy, we were researching his records with the
PPCLI and the R.I.R, finding new links, and recovering documents. We
were able to find his medal card at the U.K. National Archives (see
this new page). Thanks to Grandson Michael (see his notes in the
PPCLI page), we were advanced considerably in our research!
|
| May 13, 2005: More information posted on
the CEF Forum leads us to the war diaries of the Princess Pat's on the
Library and Archives Canada web site. We have now added this
information to our PPCLI
web page.
|
| May 7, 2005: Some early reports back
from the CEF Forum note some conflicts on the dates in the family records,
these are noted on the home page. Very preliminary work is started on
looking for information as it relates to the Princess Patricia's Canadian
Light Infantry and the Royal Irish Rifles, thus these pages are added to
the web site (see links on left side). Our request is sent in to
"Library and Archives Canada" for the rest of J. C. Kennedy's
file, also as noted in the links.
|
| May 5, 2005: Coinciding with the VE
(Victory in Europe) celebrations, commemorating the end of the Second
World War in Europe, I started my second World War One commemorative web
site project on Grandfather "Jack" (Josiah Alexander
Chancellor) Kennedy (mother's
side). My first project details the history of my father's side,
with the exploits of Grandfather George Van Wyck Laughton, as contained on
the Great War Website. |
