Leo Alphonsus Kennedy

KENNEDY, Leo Alphonsus- – – – SPC 1906-1907

DoB:- – 15 January 1895, Hamilton, VIC

Father:– – Richard John Kennedy

Mother:- – Catherine Honora

Leo was a boarder from Cobram. Leo was in the Fifth Class in 1907.

Service No:- 343N

Rank:– – Trooper

Unit:– 1st Royal Aust Naval Bridging Trail, later 12th Light Horse Regiment

Leo Kennedy enlisted initially on 24 May 1915 at Melbourne. He was 20 years and five months old, five feet, five and a half inches tall, with a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. His occupation was stated as wool and skin buyer. He was assigned as a Trooper to the 1st Royal Australian Naval Bridging Trail.

Trooper Kennedy arrived at the Greek island of Lemnos, and saw service at Gallipoli. In January 1916 he disembarked at Alexandria. He went Absent Without Leave (AWL) around 5 February and had to forfeit seven days’ pay. At the end of March he was promoted to driver.

At around this time, March 1917, he applied for, and was granted, a transfer to the Light Horse Brigade. He completed new attestation papers on 28 March at Kubri, Egypt, stating one of his reasons for requesting the transfer being that his entire life he had worked around horses. He stated his occupation on these attestation papers as horse breaker.

So, by 2 May 1917, Trooper Kennedy was assigned to the 12th Light Horse Regiment where he served for the next six months.

He was killed in action on 7 November 1917 at El Sharia, Palestine. An eyewitness account states,

-‘-¦ I saw him killed at Tel El Sheira [sic] -¦ He was alongside of me and a bullet struck him on neck near shoulder, he only lived about ten minutes. I saw him buried near where he fell and a cross was put over the grave with his name and number -¦’

After the war, Leo Alphonsus Kennedy was re-interred at Beersheba War Cemetery.