John Kenneally VC

John Patrick Kenneally’s life was an extraordinary story from the start and the main source for information on his life comes from his autobiography “Kenneally VC”. The book covers his army career in great detail but is considerably more sketchy on his early and domestic life. To some extent it is probable that this sketchiness is there to protect his mother from unwelcome judgement.

Kenneally states he was born at 104 Alexandra Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham on 15th March 1921, the illegitimate son of a Blackpool born 18 year old pharmacist’s daughter named Gertrude Nowell Robinson She was, he says, sent by her family to friends in Birmingham to have her baby in secrecy. Gertrude was in fact born in 1901 (registered in Fylde, Lancashire) and so it would seem she was 18 when she became pregnant and was 19 at the time of birth. When she went to register her son’s birth on 29th April she gave the impression she was married, an understandable thing to do. She named him Leslie Jackson after the man she claimed as his father, and her implied husband, – Leslie Jackson, a Commercial Traveller trading in waterproof materials, of 29 Bryan Road in Blackpool. She named herself as Gertrude Nowell Jackson formerly Robinson.

In September she was visited by Henry Nowell Robinson, probably her father but possibly her brother. It would seem he was unimpressed by Gertrude’s registration and the pair of them went back to the Register Office on 8th September to make a statutory declaration of amendments. These amendments removed Leslie Jackson’s name and details as father and changed Gertrude’s details to simply Gertrude Nowell Robinson. So little Leslie’s birth name ended up being Leslie Robinson and he was now definitely illegitimate. But was Leslie Jackson actually the father of the boy? It is likely he knew the Robinsons but if Gertrude is to be believed then the real father was a man she could never have put on the certificate as her husband as he had a prominent public profile. The man she later claimed as the father was Neville Leslie Blond (born 11th February 1896) who was the son of a Jewish wool manufacturer from Manchester; amongst other things they supplied underwear to Marks & Spencer. Blond later went on to become chairman of the English Stage Company and husband of Elaine Marks, the Marks & Spencer heiress. Blond had fought in the First World War as a Trooper (2129) with the Royal Horse Guards. According to Kenneally he was decorated by the French with the Croix De Guerre. He was promoted to Lance Corporal and then, on 30th March 1917 to Temporary Second Lieutenant within the Household Cavalry. From then on 20th February 1919 he was made up to Captain and then on 30th September 1919 up to Major.

The naming of her son as Leslie is an obvious link to Blond so it may be that she simply picked on Leslie Jackson as a cover for his convenient name. Blond and his wife’s reactions to the child are noted later.

As a break with the past Gertrude Robinson retained and used the surname Jackson anyway. Alexandra Road was a reasonably affluent location, many of the residents were local businessmen, many of them Jewish. According to Kenneally he lived at the house with his mother and “Uncle Jack” and “Auntie Pearl”. Jack was a traveling businessman of some kind and was not in fact married to Pearl. Both Pearl and his mother apparently entertained many visiting “uncles” to the house. Here we have the next anomaly in his early life as a glance at the Electoral Roll shows that living at 104 Alexandra Road were: Thomas Ferns Scholefield, Jessie Pullen Bell (later Scholefield), Leslie Bell, Hazel Bell and Gertrude Jackson. Kenneally says that Pearl was “somewhat older than my mother” and so it seems reasonable to assume that this is Jessie Pullen Bell. She does later marry Thomas Scholefield so this would seem to indicate that he is “Uncle Jack”. The two other Bells who Kenneally never mentions must be related to Jessie, possibly children or siblings. Gertrude Jackson worked as a Dance Hostess at Tony’s Ballroom which was on Hurst Street right next door to the Birmingham Hippodrome. Tony’s was owned by the Kirsch family who lived three doors down from Gertrude at 98 Alexandra Road, so probably she knew them socially to some degree before getting the job. Life at Alexandra Road must have been fairly comfortable as the household employed a cleaner named Mary. Mary lived in a back house on nearby Mary Street with her husband (un-named) and son Frank and daughter Marie. Her husband was an ex- Royal Warwickshire Regiment soldier and was in and out of work which was why Mary had taken the cleaning job. Mary’s other duty was to take young Leslie to and from his school by tram each weekday. Indicative of the affluence that he grew up in by comparison to many youngsters of his age was that he went to Calthorpe College which was a private school. In fact at the time he started it was still known as Calthorpe High School and it was at 103 Bristol Road near to the junction with Sir Harry’s Road. The principal’s name was Miss May Dudlick Taylor. She is of interest because one of Leslie’s most significant early memories is of arriving at school to see a commotion in the playground and the headmistress sitting on top of the four storey building threatening to jump. She did in fact jump although whether or not she died he does not say; what he does say is that the school subsequently closed and he was sent to Tindall Street Junior Council School. The problem with this story is that according to the Trade Directories the school was open for years after Leslie left and remained, as it always had been, under the tutelage of May Dudlick Taylor. There are few records remaining at all for Calthorpe College but none of them include any story of attempted suicide. It seems unlikely it could have been her given that she remained in charge and the school did not close at all. If there was a teacher on the roof then it was not May Dudlick Taylor.

In the Spring of 1930 Leslie was hurriedly sent to stop with his mother’s eldest brother William Robinson and his wife on a farm on the coast near to Preston. He spent some weeks there never directly hearing from his mother although she apparently sent letters to her brother. This enforced “holiday” was never explained to him but from his comments is seems clear that there was trouble at Alexandra Road. He mentions complaints from the neighbours about 104 being a disorderly house; the consequences of this being that Pearl moved to Bristol and Gertrude took new lodgings nearby to Alexandra Road. In the Summer she came (with a new paramour) to collect her son and take him back to Birmingham. On returning he rejoined his classmates at Tindall Street Junior Council School with Kenneally wondering how his mother had managed to explain her son’s absence for the weeks he was away. Gertrude and Leslie soon moved again, this time to Mary Street where his mother started a hairdressing business. This business is not listed in the Trade Directories under her name so the possibilities are that it just was never listed, she actually worked for someone who owned it, or she was working from a private address. Leslie left Tindall Street School and managed to get a place at King Edward VI grammar school at Five Ways in Birmingham, excelling at sports and also as a patrol leader with the Scouts. He learned to survive socially by his wits and fists. Kenneally recalled later in his autobiography that his mother seemed to have plenty of money because his father was paying maintenance after a paternity case had been brought. For his part, Blond later strenuously denied that he was Kenneally’s father, although he admitted he paid the maintenance order. “I was only one of his mother’s many friends,” he said, “but I happened to have a bob or two, which meant ‘go for that fellow”. This is one of many oblique references to Gertrude possibly being a prostitute.

He first joined up with the Royal Artillery TA on his 18th birthday and was mobilised at the outbreak of World War Two. His first posting was to an anti-aircraft battery at Dollis Hill in North London but Kenneally soon bored of life there. Early in 1941 he met some irish labourers, deserted, and accompanied them to Glasgow. They supplied him with a forged identity card in the name of John Patrick Kenneally. With a new name and a fabricated childhood in Tipperary, he enlisted with the Irish Guards at Manchester, having already been impressed by the regiment when he had spent a week at their detention centre in Wellington Barracks after over staying a leave from the Royal Artillery. The Guards regime was tough but it appealed to his sense of adventure. Thinking back to his early days with the Guards he recalled that: “It was a hard school to learn in. Without being over-sentimental, men can love each other. It is born of mutual suffering, hardships shared, dangers encountered. It is a spiritual love and there is nothing sexual about it. It’s entirely masculine, even more than brotherly love, and is called comradeship.” Before the Guards were posted to North Africa, he married his girlfriend Elizabeth Francis by special licence. The couple had met at a dance in September 1942 and married in the December. Elizabeth was working in Tipton as a munitions worker in a factory and so the couple set up home in Tipton at Canal View, Park Lane East.

The regiment landed at Bone, North Africa, in March 1943 and almost immediately proceeded to the front at Medjez el Bab. The half Jewish and non-Irish Kenneally was about to become famous as one of the most loyal Guardsmen of all time. He was gazetted on 17th August 1943 for his deeds on the 28th and 30th of April 1943. His exploits took place on The Bou which was a feature dominating all of the ground east and west between Medjez El Bab and Tebourba. Tactically the British forces needed to capture and hold this area to make the final assault on Tunis. “A Guards Brigade assaulted and captured a portion of the Bou on 27th April 1943. The Irish Guards held on to points 212 and 214 at the western end of the feature, which points the Germans frequently counter-attacked. While a further attack to capture the complete feature was being prepared it was essential for the Irish Guards to hold on. They did so. On the 28th April 1943 the positions held by one company of the Irish Guards on the ridge between points 212 and 214 were about to be subjected to an attack by the enemy. Approximately one company of the enemy (of panzer grenadiers) were seen forming up preparatory to attack and Lance Corporal Kenneally decided that this was the right moment to attack them himself. Single handed he charged down the bare forward slope straight at the main enemy body firing his bren gun from the hip as he did so. This outstanding act of gallantry, and the dash with which it was executed, completely unbalanced the enemy company which broke up in disorder. Lance Corporal Kenneally then returned to the crest further to harass their retreat.

Lance Corporal Kenneally repeated this remarkable exploit on the morning of the 30th April 1943 when, accompanied by a Sergeant of the Reconnaissance Corps, he again charged the enemy forming up for an assault. This time he so harassed the enemy inflicting many casualties that this projected assault was frustrated: the enemy’s strength was again about one company. It was only when he was noticed hopping from one fire position to another further to the left in order to support another company, carrying his gun in one hand and supporting himself on a guardsman with the other, was it discovered he had been wounded (a 9mm bullet in the calf). He refused to give up his bren gun claiming that he was the only one who understood that gun and continued to fight all through that day with great courage, devotion to duty and disregard for his own safety. The magnificent gallantry of the NCO on the se two occasions under heavy fire, his unfailing vigilance and remarkable accuracy, were responsible for saving many valuable lives during the days and nights in the forward positions. His actions also played a considerable part in holding these positions and this influenced the whole course of the battle. His rapid appreciation of the situation, his initiative and his extraordinary gallantry in attacking single-handed a massed body of the enemy and breaking up an attack on two occasions was an achievement that can seldom have been equalled. His courage in fighting all day when wounded was an inspiration to all ranks”.

Indeed it was later revealed that the Irish Guards had sustained nearly 90% casualties against what was a veteran Afrika Corps division. Pictures survive held by the Kenneally family of a Mass being held on Hill 212 in 1943 and presumably this was some time shortly after the battle. Kenneally was promoted to sergeant but no immediate mention was made of a VC although he himself apparently had had hopes of at least being awarded a Military Medal. Consequently the news of his VC in mid-August came as a great shock. The delay had been due to interviews with survivors who had been present, all of whom had been sworn to secrecy with Kenneally being the last to know.

His first award in fact was the ribbon for the VC which was presented to him by General Harold Alexander, the senior commanding officer for the Tunisian campaign. The ceremony took place at Hammemet, Tunisia on 27th August 1943. Also present for the occasion were Colonel Scott, General Omar Bradley and Major General Leinnitzer. The award was filmed by Pathe newsreels and still exists today in their archives. Still to come for Kenneally was for him to go to Buckingham Palace to receive the actual VC from the King. In the meantime he had his portrait painted by Henry Carr at Alexander’s residence which was the British Ambassador’s house in Tunis, Kenneally was indeed a celebrity from the Irish Guards. The painting originally hung in the Imperial War Museum but was last reported seen by Kenneally at the sergeant’s Mess at Chelsea Barracks.

While her husband was away Elizabeth Kenneally carried on working in the factory. When she got home on the evening of 17th August she got a visit from the local police station who called to inform her of her husband’s award of the Victoria Cross. At work the next day she received congratulations from everyone there and speeches were made by the owners of the firm. She was pictured by the Birmingham Mail by her machine with the Works Superintendent. The Birmingham Mail asked Elizabeth Kenneally for background information on her husband. This must have been an uneasy experience for her, knowing, as she obviously did, that there was a need to be circumspect with the truth.

Kenneally received letters of congratulation from all over the world. His most memorable praise came from Winston Churchill in 1945; Churchill had denounced the Irish Premier Eamon De Valera for what he said had been “frolicking” with the Germans. But, said Churchill, any bitterness he had for the Irish race “dies in my heart” when he thought of heroes such as John Kenneally. This no doubt amused Kenneally no end given he was not Irish. Of course the publicity over the Victoria Cross, although deserved, presented Kenneally with some problems. He did not want his personal life to come out in public, not least having been a deserter. “It was the worst thing that could have happened to me,” he recalled. “I thought ‘Now I’m bound to be rumbled’, but I never was.” He was also less than pleased by the behaviour of Neville Blond when he went to see him. “He told me how proud he was, gave me £10 and showed me the door.”

Later the Guards fought in February 1944 at the Anzio beachhead, where Kenneally was again wounded. Indeed the Guards took such heavy losses they were withdrawn to England where Kenneally was given responsibility for training some airmen who had reluctantly transferred to make good the losses sustained. He was with them when the Guards were part of the D-Day landings of 6th June 1944 and the subsequent campaign across France and Germany. Prior to the D-Day landing he was given leave in May 1944 and returned home for a couple of weeks to see his wife. He phoned her to say which train he would be arriving on at Dudley Port Station and thought no more of it until the train guard approached him and asked him if he was Kenneally the V.C. On affirming this he was told that a brass band and hundreds of people were waiting for him at the station. It was then that Kenneally realized how the award was to change his life and put him under considerable pressure for public commitments. Also at last in May came his trip to Buckingham palace to receive the VC from King George VI. Due to the large numbers of men being decorated for various awards Kenneally was only allowed one person to attend with him. The choice between his mother and his wife was a difficult one to make!

After D-Day and the campaign into Germany he remained stationed there. The Sunday Mercury newspaper caught up with him in a report published on 3rd June 1945. At the time he was on leave and stopping with his Tipton born wife, Elizabeth (nee Francis), at his aunt and uncle’s flat on Broad Street. Mr and Mrs Eden, it was said, had looked after Kenneally through his adolescence. This statement goes against Kenneally’s own version of his early life in book as in that he was only looked after by his mother apart from his few weeks on the farm near Preston with Uncle William. A search of the Electoral Roll reveals a James and Florence Eden living at 130 Ryland Place off Broad Street. Who they were to Kenneally remains a mystery. The Kenneally’s marital home was said to be in North Street, Dudley. He was, the paper reported, likely to be demobilised in early 1946 and an unlikely career move had presented itself when a British film company, impressed by his presence and features, persuaded him to undergo a screen test. The test had gone well although the company had recommended elocution lessons to learn to project his voice which was naturally a soft low Irish burr. In the end he opted not to become an actor.

Kenneally was later promoted to Company Quarter Master Sergeant .An end of World War II Victory Day Celebration Reception was held at the Dorchester Hotel, London, for holders of the Victoria Cross on 8th June 1946 and Kenneally was in attendance. The daily life as part of the army of occupation in Germany bored him and so he joined the 1st Guards Parachute Battalion in 1947 seeing service in Palestine and Trans-Jordan. There he was to spend most of his time keeping the Jewish and Arab peoples apart. His half-Jewish parentage meant he was pleased to be given the job of organising the defence of a kibbutz in Northern Galilee. Thanks to his efforts, and tactical skills, the kibbutz survived a major Arab night attack just before the final British withdrawal through Haifa began. He was offered a position with the Israeli forces but decided instead to return to England with the Guards in the hope of a home posting. This didn’t occur and so reluctantly in July 1948 he paid the £120 buy-out costs and started Kenneally Motors in Wellington Road, Dudley. He kept this business going until the mid 1960’s. During this period of some thirty years he also lived in the Dudley area at Parkes Hall Road.

He was in attendance for the VC Centenary Review held in Hyde Park on 26th June 1956 with HM Queen Elizabeth II as Guest of Honour. That same year his portrait (by Carr) was loaned by the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum for display at the Centenary Exhibition of the Victoria Cross held at Marlborough House, London between 15th June and 17th July. He was interviewed in the Sunday Mercury of 27th October 1991 in the week when two VC’s were sold at Christies’ auction house. Kenneally, now living in Lapworth, Solihull as a retired Security Guard vowed never to sell his medals. “Money can’t buy my memories, I don’t care how poor I am – I would never part with my medals”. Asked what would happen to them after his death Kenneally said: “I’m going to leave my medals to the Irish Guards”. The other reason for the visit was the forthcoming publication of “Kenneally VC” which was due out in November.

He moved to Rochford, Worcester where briefly again he popped into the national press when he wrote to the Daily Telegraph in 2000 to rebuke Peter Mandelson for his remarks about the Irish Guards being “chinless wonders”. On September 27th 2000. Kenneally had just returned home from his regular dialysis session at Wordsley Hospital in Dudley when he suffered a heart attack which sadly proved to be fatal. Kevin Treacy, vice chairman of the West Midlands regimental branch of the Irish Guards said:

“We are all devastated by the loss of such a brave man. His wife Elsie is very upset. He was a prominent member of this group even though he was quiet and modest. He never publicised the fact he was a Victoria Cross medal winner. Representatives from every group of the Irish Guard will hopefully attend Mr. Kenneally’s funeral as a mark of great respect”.

He was buried in St Michael’s and All Angels’ Churchyard, Rochford in October (date?). The funeral was attended by around 150 including Thomas Dunne, Lord Lieutenant for Herefordshire and Worcestershire and Irish Guards past and present. Tthe coffin, draped in a Guards flag, was carried in and out of the church by a section of those currently serving. A bugler and piper from the Guards played at the service which included three singularly appropriate hymns in “Onward Christian Soldiers”, “He Who Would Valiant Be” and “I Vow To Thee My Country”. His son Shane recalled his father as a man “who enjoyed life to the fullest” while son-in-law Robert Perrin praised his “genuine friendliness to everyone he met”. John Perrin read out a section of Kenneally’s VC citation.

As promised, his VC medal group passed to the Irish Guards Regimental Head Quarters at Wellington Barracks in London. He was survived by Elizabeth and two sons and a daughter, one other son pre-deceasing him in a road accident.