The Man who took me to War

2253 Rifleman Frederick Louis Kilkenny

1/8th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment

Frederick Louis Kilkenny, known to his family as Lou, died in 1962, and because his death pre-dated my birth, I never met him. That's a shame for many reasons, but for the purpose of this post, I'm going to suggest that his death, at the relatively young age, by modern standards, at least, of 67 is a shame because I never had the chance to talk with him about his war.

It was a relatively short war for my Granddad, in terms of being on the Western Front, where his battalion was deployed for the duration of fighting, because he was evacuated, sick, from Belgium in the middle part of 1915, and spent the rest of his embodied service at home in the United Kingdom. He wasn't ill enough to be considered no longer fit for service, but his condition was such that he was no longer fit to fight. He was transferred to a reserve battalion, where he was a machine gun instructor, based at Clipstone Camp, near Mansfield, before his battalion was sent to Ireland to police the area around Enniskillen in County Fermanagh. On the face of things, he must have been a decent soldier, as he held the rank of Corporal when he was disembodied at the end of his service.

Lou Kilkenny was born on 8th June 1895 at the barracks in Tanshelf, Pontefract, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father, Andrew, was a York and Lancaster Regiment Colour Serjeant instructor on the Permanent staff of the infantry depot at the barracks. Lou was the fifth of an eventual seven children born to the marriage of Andrew and his wife, Evangeline Smithers-Lee.

Andrew Kilkenny was a career soldier, and had joined the York and Lancaster Regiment at Dover Castle in 1878, and by the time he had served in the 1882 Egyptian Campaign, had reached the rank of Serjeant, which seems to be a very swift advancement indeed. On his return from Egypt, Andrew, who had joined the Army under the assumed name of Anthony, of which more later, extended his service with the colours, rather than transferring to the Reserve, and married his wife, the grandly named, Evangeline Smithers-Lee. Andrew was 22 years old and Eva (as she was known) was the 16 year old daughter of a builder, originally from Farnham in Surrey, but now living in Aldershot. In 1883, Andrew's battalion sailed for Bermuda, which in those days, was not the carefree sunshine posting we might think it would be. Bermuda was known to be a disease ridden island, and it was accepted that a considerable number of the men stationed there would die of disease during their posting.

Why did Andrew join the Army as Anthony?

As a young child, growing up with a burgeoning interest in the Army and my own family's involvement in it, I was treated to stories of internal strife in the family of my Great Granddad. Andrew, I was told he came from a comfortably off family of Irish immigrants, who had settled in Wednesbury in the West Midlands. His parents were of the strict Irish Catholic tradition, and, being the youngest son, Andrew was being prepared either for a life in the priesthood, or the Army. Andrew, it seems, had set his stall out to join the Army, but rejecting his parents' wishes, he was determined to join as a soldier, and not as an officer. 

Family legend says that he ran away to join the Army twice, and both times his family brought him home again. After the second attempt, he was told in no uncertain terms that if he attempted to become a soldier for a third time, they would not come to retrieve him. They would let him go, but he would no longer be a part of the family if he was not going to take a commission as an officer.

Andrew ran away again. He ran away to Dover and joined the Army at the Castle. The legend does get some support from his attestation papers, as in the section asking about previous military service, some service in the militia is recorded. His attestation papers are named to Anthony Kilkenny, and the recruit signs his name as Anthony Kilkenny. He kept up this deception until the time of his marriage, when his real name is seen on his service papers for the first time.

Also in the legend within the family is the story of my Great Granddad waiting for a train at an unknown railway station. Standing on the platform in his scarlet tunic and Home Service Helmet, a man standing in front of him turned around and their eyes met. The men were bothers and instantly recognised each other, but before my Great Granddad could speak, the man in civilian attire turned his back on him and moved away. It was, so the story goes, the last time my Great Granddad had anything to do with his family.

But it wasn't, or at least it doesn't appear to be. The Birth Register entry for Andrew and Eva's second child, Andrew Cyril, clearly shows that he was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire. Surely, if the Kilkenny family had disowned their defiant son, he would not have chosen to take his imminently expectant wife to their hometown in order to give birth to their child?

It makes no sense at all.

After Bermuda, Andrew returned to the UK, and was posted with his battalion to the Infantry Barracks at York, and before too long, was posted as a Permanent Staff Instructor to the Infantry Depot at Pontefract, where in 1895, Frederick Louis was born.

Andrew Kilkenny retired to pension from the Army in 1902 after he had returned from the South African War and received the Queen's medal for his service there, as well as an Army Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, and the family moved to Leeds, although close ties were kept with the Lees in Aldershot. Andrew became a Watchkeeper in the Copperworks in Leeds. 

Education must have been seen as being important to Andrew and Eva, as well as their Catholicism. Their eldest child, Kate became a nun, teaching in a school in Southport. The eldest son, Andrew became a telephone engineer with the General Post Office, which led him in wartime to become a Royal Engineers Signal Service Sapper, after initial service with his dad's old regiment, the York and Lancaster Regiment. Lou became a clerk. I've not been able to find out which company he did his clerking with, but I'm satisfied that if he was, he was able to get employment as a clerk, his education was above the average for his peers. He was also training to be a journalist, with an on working abroad as a foreign correspondent. The war interrupted his plans. 

When war came in August 1914, Lou was a little over 19 years old, and living with his parents in their large house in Osmondthorpe, Leeds. He didn't immediately rush out to join the colours, but instead, presented himself at Carlton Barracks in Leeds on 7th September 1914, and attested for the 8th Battalion, the West Yorkshire Regiment. The Leeds Rifles.

The main body of the battalion, with the rest of 1st West Riding Brigade had already left Leeds for it's War Station at Selby.

Anecdotal evidence exists to suggest that if a man reached the battalion, and he was in any way an accomplished sportsman, he would be claimed by the Transport section of the battalion, and this is what happened to Lou, who had by now adopted his 'Army' name of Fred. So it was that Fred Kilkenny, an amateur footballer of some skill found himself serving in the Transport Section of the 8th battalion, which had become the 1/8th after number of men had been separated off to form the nucleus of a second line battalion to be held in UK to assist in Recruiting, and training men to be fed to the 'fighting' men of the first line, as well as it's role in home defence, which had until recently, been the role of the entire Territorial Force.

When, in April 1915, the 49th (West Riding) Division, of which the 1st West Riding Brigade was a part. sailed from Folkestone to Boulogne, Fred Kilkenny went with them. His war had begun. The division moved into a concentration area around Merville and Estaires where it organised itself for the operations to come. Soldiers were sent into the trenches for instruction from other units with experience. The division is noted as having taken part in the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9th May, but possibly due to it's relative inexperience thus far into the campaign, it had only a minor part allocated to it. Despite this, the 1/8th Bn suffered casualties, resulting mainly from British Artillery shells which did damage to their trenches. At first the Artillery blamed their observers giving them the wrong ranges to shoot over, but later enquiries settled on faulty American fuses being at fault.

Fred Kilkenny came through the battle unscathed, and he also avoided the outbreak of measles within the battalion later in the month, possibly due to the Transport Section living separately from the Rifle Companies, even though he was nominally in C Company.

From mid-May into early June, the Division drifted slowly across the flat landscape of Artois and into French Flanders. By the time 22nd June arrived, the battalion was in billets at Rue Quesnoy, and it was here that Fred Kilkenny reported sick for the first time. He was sent to 2nd West Riding Field Ambulance where he was admitted and spent a week being treated for scabies. On discharge from hospital, he caught up with his battalion north of Doulieu, where it was preparing to move once more, and within a few days it had crossed the border into Belgium.

Rifleman Fred Kilkenny, front row, second from right

The destination was the grounds of the Chateau at Elverdinghe, a Flemish village a short distance north west of Ypres. The battalion spent a few days in the grounds of the chateau, sorting out kit and generally attending to the admin that had been impossible during the move. The third week of July 1915 saw the battalion take up positions in the front line, north of Ypres, which was to become their battleground for the next few months. The lines here were already well established and the Germans had the ranges of the British positions accurately plotted. Although the battalion had been present at the Battle of Aubers Ridge, it had not played a pivotal part in it, being ordered to remain in their trenches to cover any German movements in the enemy communications trenches. They had been subject to moderate gassing a short time afterwards, but on the whole, the battalion had not had too tempestuous a time of it. That changed immediately they took up positions in the Boesinghe sector. The days and nights were punctuated by heavy barrages of enemy artillery, and prolonged periods of intense small arms fire. There was gas, there were trench mortars, there were enemy raids and patrols. It was a frenetic pace of war compared to what they had been used to previously. The battalion was obliged to send out patrols to gather as much intelligence as they could about the Germans in the trenches opposite their own. They had to send out men to repair the tangles of barbed wire, and they had to repair the trenches to a workable state after every bombardment from the enemy. And it was in this environment that Fred Kilkenny did his soldiering until he was forced to report sick once more. On 14th July 1915, he was admitted to 50th (Northumberland) Casualty Clearing Station at Hazebrouck, initially diagnosed with Shock, however later reports describe gas poisoning and Pyrexia of Unknown Origin being the causes of his illness and debility. By the end of that week, and having passed through No. 2 General Hospital at Le Havre, he was on his way back to the UK, classified as 'Permanent Base'. He was sick; too sick to fight, but not sick enough for the Army to not want him any more. He was fit enough to serve provided he could be kept in relatively comfortable conditions and away from the lice which had caused him to fall sick in the first place.

Fred was transferred to 3/8th Bn, the West Yorkshire Regiment, at Clipstone Camp, near Mansfield. This battalion had taken over the role of 2/8th Bn, which was by now in training for it's anticipated deployment to the Front, which eventually came in January 1917 along with the rest of 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division, of which it was a part.

The battalion Fred had transferred to remained at Clipstone but underwent a reorganisation that saw it absorbed by 3/7th Battalion, to form the 7th (Reserve) Battalion. Then, in the late Autumn of 1917 the battalion moved to Rugeley on Cannock Chase, where it stayed until the early summer of 1918, when it moved to Finner Camp, Ballyshannon, in Ireland. Fred was, by then, a Lance Corporal. His records shows that he needed hospital treatment in June 1918 at the military hospital in Enniskillen when he contracted tonsillitis which required a week's treatment.

It is said that Fred didn't much enjoy his time in County Donegall and Fermanagh,, and not just because of his bad tonsils. Ireland was in a state of simmering tension. The 1916 Easter Rebellion, and the way the British cracked down on the organisers and prominent supporters of it had hardened Irish opinions against what were increasingly seen as the British occupation forces. With this backdrop, and because of Fred being from an Irish Catholic family, he was viewed by some with suspicion. Despite being trusted  to be a Non Commissioned Officer, he was not allowed to leave camp in his off duty time like his fellow soldiers were, and the time he spent in Ireland was a miserable ordeal for him.

In recognition of his service, Fred was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal, and left with the rank of full Corporal.

Fred left the Army on 1st May 1919, and returned to Leeds. It isn't clear why, but he didn't return to being a clerk, opting instead to join the Leeds City Corporation Tramways, as a tram conductor. He married Elsie Marshall at the York Road Baptist Chapel on 25th June 1924. She was nine years his junior, and had turned twenty years old in the February of the year they married. They set up home together, in Elsie's parents' at 278 York Road, Leeds.

Fred thrived in the Tramways department, and before long was promoted to be an inspector. Gradual further promotions saw him become the senior inspector at the Torre Road Tram garage, and when the new terminus was opened at Seacroft, he was asked to run that until he retired at the age of 65 in 1960. During the Second World War, he had served as a Corporation Firewatcher, and was on duty the night of the first German bombing raid on the city, albeit at a safe enough distance from the city centre and Marsh Lane railway sidings where the bombs fell. That same night, Elsie, his wife was working in the Magestic Cinema in City Square in Leeds. She had to spend the whole night in the shelter in City Square. In the morning she was surprised to bump into her husband, who was on his way into town to make sure she was alright.

Throughout his life, Fred was a keen gardener, keen to put on a vibrant show for as much of the year as the weather would allow. He was fiercely proud of his family, and like his wife, he wasn't afraid to let his children know that they were loved, either in words, or in the devotion of time he made over to them to indulge in games, bike rides (despite an increasingly troublesome chest), and encouragement in all ways.

He became ill shortly before he retired, and the ill health dogged him for the next 18 months, during which time, his family nursed him at home. During this time, he liked nothing more than to be propped up in his big arm chair in the bay window of his bedroom to watch the traffic and trams go by on the York Road outside.

Fred Kilkenny died on 4th September 1962 at St James's Hospital in Leeds.

It is largely due to the story of my Granddad, that I have become fascinated with the Great War in general, and with what the 49th (West Riding) Division did in that war. I may not have met him, but his story has been an immense influence on me for my entire life.