William Kendall: A discovered life: Part 1 - The Beginning

Mrs P's great great grandmother, Mary Johns Cook, was born Mary Johns Williams in St Germans, Cornwall, about 10 miles from where we live. As part of my researches into her family, I came across the burial record for her younger sister, Catherine Elizabeth Kendall (nee Williams), who was Mrs P's great great great aunt.

As the entry below shows, she was buried in St German's graveyard on March 22nd 1919. And then the next entry in the register caught my eye.

This was an entry for William Kendall, also buried on March 22nd. What was intriguing about this entry were the notes added: 'Scots Guards South Africa, "Old Contemptible" France '14. Died in the Military Hospital, Devonport'. I did establish that William was, indeed, Catherine's son as it's always unsafe to assume any relationship until it's validated. Which makes him Mrs P’s First Cousin, three times removed!

So, mother and son were buried on the same day- a double tragedy for the family. But did they die on the same day. Their respective death certificates tell the story.

William died first, on 17th March 1919 at the Military Hospital in Devonport. The cause of death is given as influenza/pneumonia, sadly not uncommon in this era. His rank and profession details are interesting: Corporal in the 343rd Road Construction Company of the Royal Engineers and also Labourer with the County (presumably Cornwall) Council. These details could be useful later.

His mother, Elizabeth, died three days later, on 20th March, at home in St German’s. Her cause of death is given as ‘heart disease’. Her death has been described as ‘sudden’. Is it too fanciful to suggest that it was the shock of her son’s death that caused her own demise?

Fittingly, they were buried together in St German’s graveyard and both lie in a grave marked with an official Commonwealth War Grave’s Commission headstone. I would have thought that having son and mother buried in an official war grave is a unique occurrence.

It comes as no surprise, then, to see William’s name appearing on the St German’s War Memorial, although his rank is given as ‘Private’ whereas his headstone shows ‘Corporal. In my experience, it’s not unusual to come across small errors of fact like this as there was no prescribed way of gathering the information for those appearing on these memorials.

The information gathered so far suggests that William Kendall had quite a long military career, taking in the Second Boer War, an early entry into France in the First World War (as an ‘Old Contemptible’) and continued service until the end of the war. It’s going to be intriguing to see how much more of the detail of William’s life can be discovered. Let the next phase of research begin.......