Once again Michael Thierens
from the Canadian
Expeditionary Force Study Group has assisted with his interpretation of
the MIC (Medal Index Card) and provided the following:
Top right: should read Victory (Medal) and they have scribbled R&F?
on it, OFF 59 is the GRO reference where the category can be found on page 28 c?, this
is the medal roll. Ditto for British War Medal. His 1915 Star Medal has the annotation Ex Dom top right and underneath that perhaps R.I.R.? A/Capt ,R&F meaning Rank and File Roll and again a reference to the medal rolls. The date 24-10-16 is exciting...because it refers to the date he got his commission with the R.I.R! They made a proper mess of things in the right hand corner as he qualified for the Star Medal as private Kennedy, so the annotation OFF 59 is wrong.
Action taken: 15/Star, BW & VM administrative gibberish. Dup. Star issued..........one would think the Canadian one was issued, being different from the British one??? Theatre of War is clear: France and qualifying date is the date he disembarked in France and qualified for the Star Medal, only it can't be as he was already in France? Possible explanation: I think they misinterpreted 3 for a 5. Note: there is a unexplained gap between the date he was struck off strength and commissioned as an officer. Does that mean he returned to duty after recovering from his wound(s) and was struck of strength because he was transferred for an officers training? Take this into consideration:
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 51288 Private
Imperial Army 51288 Private
Royal Irish Rifles Acting Captain
and I'd say he was transferred to the R.I.R. as a private and then started his training, acting Captain being the highest rank he obtained.
Since the time that Michael wrote this information, we have
discovered that Grandfather Kennedy was first hospitalized due to a
shrapnel wound to the foot (a "Blighty" - takes you on a
trip to England!). He recovered from that and
returned to the PPCLI, but only a short time later, while in the
trenches, he started to suffer from the testicular swelling. This
lead to his travels through the Field Ambulance Stations, Clearing
Stations and eventually to a hospital in the UK for surgery.
Immediately after this he started his officer's training, which then
lead to Josiah accepting a commission in the BEF Royal Irish
Rifles. If you look at the page on the Kennedy-Stephenson
Genealogy, you will also see that cousin Thomas was with the Royal
Irish Rifles, so we expect the choice of the RIR was more than mere
coincidence. Grandfather Kennedy's two brothers, William and James also
served in the Royal Irish Rifles and both were killed in action during
the war. We have included their details on the genealogy
page.
In July 2005 we were fortunate to receive additional information, thanks to
Ian Bowbrick (host of the "Lost
Generation 1418" forum - now closed), who kindly retrieved Grandfather Kennedy's
army listings with the Royal Irish Rifles in 1917. Unfortunately, Ian also reported that A/Captain Kennedy's service records do
not appear to have survived. The details of this
find is provided on the R.I.
R. web page of this site. Direct links to the documents are as
follows:
