Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy

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G. A. Studdert Kennedy, 1918

Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy Template:Post-nominals (27 June 1883 – 8 March 1929) was an English Anglican priest and poet. He was nicknamed "Woodbine Willie" during World War I for giving Woodbine cigarettes to the soldiers he met, as well as spiritual aid to injured and dying soldiers.

Early life

Born in Leeds, England, on 27 June 1883, Studdert Kennedy was the seventh of nine children born to Jeanette Anketell and William Studdert Kennedy, vicar of St Mary's, Quarry Hill in Leeds. His father William Studdert Kennedy was born in Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland, in 1826. Geoffrey's paternal grandfather, Robert Mitchell Kennedy, was Dean of Clonfert in County Galway, Ireland from 1850 until his death in 1864.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> One of Geoffrey's brothers was Hugh A. Studdert Kennedy, a biographer of American religious leader Mary Baker Eddy.

Because of his Irish forefathers, Geoffrey always maintained he was an Irishman.<ref>Bunbury, Turtle, The Glorious Madness, Tales of The Irish and The Great War, Woodbine Wilie -- The Soldiers' Poet, p.85, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 12 (2014) Template:ISBN</ref> He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he gained a degree in classics and divinity in 1904.<ref name="Spartacus Educational - bio">Template:Cite web</ref> After a year's training at Ripon Clergy College,<ref name="Yorkshire Post - Remembering the vicar they called Woodbine Willie">Template:Cite news</ref> he became a curate at St Andrew's Church, Rugby, and then, in 1914, the vicar of St. Paul's, Worcester.<ref name="Spartacus Educational - bio" />

Military career

On the outbreak of World War I, Studdert Kennedy volunteered as a chaplain to the army on the Western Front, where he gained the nickname "Woodbine Willie".<ref name="BBC - The Rev. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy or Woodbine Willie" /> In 1917, he was awarded the Military Cross at Messines Ridge after running into no man's land to help the wounded during an attack on the German frontline.<ref name="LG 14 August 1917" /><ref name="The Guardian - Church is central">Template:Cite news</ref>

During the war he supported the British military effort with enthusiasm. Attached to a bayonet-training service, chaplain Kennedy toured with boxers and wrestlers to give morale-boosting speeches about the usefulness of the bayonet.<ref>Alan Wilkinson, The Church of England and the First World War, London: SCM Press, 1996, p. 136.</ref> One of his inspirational speeches is vividly described by A. S. Bullock as "the most extraordinary talk I ever heard'. Bullock notes that the listeners 'were a very rough, tough lot, but they sat spellbound", and quotes a section of the speech, at the end of which "everybody sprang to their feet and cheered him to the echo".<ref>Bullock, A. S., Gloucestershire Between the Wars: A Memoir, The History Press, 2009, pages 92-93</ref>

He wrote a number of poems about his experiences, and these appeared in the books Rough Rhymes of a Padre (1918), and More Rough Rhymes (1919), among others.<ref name="BBC - The Rev. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy or Woodbine Willie">Template:Cite news</ref>

An anthology of his works was published under the title The Unutterable Beauty.

Later life

After the war, Studdert Kennedy was given charge of St Edmund, King and Martyr in Lombard Street, London. Having been converted to Christian socialism and pacifism during the war, he wrote Lies (1919), Democracy and the Dog-Collar (1921) (featuring such chapters as "The Church Is Not a Movement but a Mob", "Capitalism is Nothing But Greed, Grab, and Profit-Mongering" and "So-Called Religious Education Worse than Useless"), Food for the Fed Up (1921), The Wicket Gate (1923), and The Word and the Work (1925). He moved to work for the Industrial Christian Fellowship, for whom he went on speaking tours of Britain.

His appointment as missioner for ICF released him from routine clerical duties to become an outspoken advocate for the working classes. One of his celebrated quotes was: "If finding God in our churches leads to us losing Him in our factories, then better we tear down those churches for God must hate the sight of them."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

It was on one of these tours that he was taken ill with the flu, which was complicated by his weak lungs. He died in Liverpool on 8 March 1929, exhausted at the age of 45. The Dean of Westminster refused burial at Westminster Abbey, because he said Studdert Kennedy was a "socialist", even though he had distrusted most politicians and had refused to join any political party. His funeral took place in Worcester, to which First World War veterans and poor working people flocked to pay their respects. <ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Honours and legacy

Honours

Studdert Kennedy was awarded the Military Cross (MC) during World War I. His citation read:<ref name="LG 14 August 1917">Template:London Gazette</ref> Template:Blockquote

The Museum of Army Chaplaincy at Amport House, Hampshire, also honours Kennedy with a large display about his life. In February 2013, John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds unveiled a commemorative plaque in Ripon, North Yorkshire, to honour the Ripon Clergy College and Studdert Kennedy.<ref name="Yorkshire Post - Remembering the vicar they called Woodbine Willie" /><ref name="Darlington and Stockton Times - War hero Woodbine Willie is honoured">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="The Press -Paying tribute to Rev Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, known as 'Woodbine Willie'">Template:Cite news</ref>

Studdert Kennedy is commemorated with a feast day (Commemoration) on the liturgical calendar of the Church of England on 8 March.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>"Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy", The Lectionary Page</ref>

Legacy

He wrote the poem Roses in December,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which J.M. Barrie quoted in his rectorial address to the University of St. Andrews entitled Courage in 1922,<ref>Barrie J.M. Courage (Hodder & Stoughton) 1922</ref> and often misattributed to Barrie.

War! Lies! And a Packet of Fags! is a play by David Gooderson about the Great War and its aftermath—the story of "Woodbine Willie".<ref name="david-gooderson">Template:Cite web</ref>

He is mentioned in the Divine Comedy song "Absent Friends": "Woodbine Willie couldn't rest until he'd/given every bloke a final smoke/before the killing," and in Finnegans Wake by Irish author James Joyce: "tsingirillies' zyngarettes, while Woodbine Willie, so popiular with the poppyrossies" (351).

Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen quoted Studdert Kennedy's 1918 poem "Indifference" (from the collection called "Rough Rhymes of a Padre") when Sheen spoke publicly about the need for enthusiasm in all of one's life.<ref name="Wasting Your Life">Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Studdert Kennedy "wrote this poem during what was called ‘the great disillusion’ of the 1920s".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sheen's point was that the "world is suffering from indifference" as "apathy, not caring."<ref name="Wasting Your Life"/> Sheen noted that he wondered if Jesus Christ "did not suffer more from our indifference than he did from the crucifixion."<ref name="Wasting Your Life"/> To make his point he recited Studdert Kennedy's poem "Indifference."

His son was the psychologist and linguist Michael Studdert-Kennedy.

Works

Poetry<ref name="
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Books<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="
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Anthologies<ref name="
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  • 1947: The best of G.A. Studdert-Kennedy (Woodbine Willy) : selected from his writings by a friend. Hodder and Stoughton
  • 2008: After War, Is Faith Possible? By Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy & Kerry Walters (editor). Lutterworth Press

References

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Further reading

  • "Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy: The Pastor and the Suffering God" Template:Webarchive. An OCMS lecture about Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, given by Robert Ellis, 2005 February 15.
  • Holman, Annette, Woodbine Willy: an unsung hero of World War One, Lion Hudson 2013
  • Template:ODNBweb
  • Purcell, William, Woodbine Willy: a study of Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (an Anglican incident. Being an account of the life and times of Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy poet, prophet, seeker after truth, 1883 – 1929, Mowbray 1962
  • Turtle Bunbury, The Glorious Madness, Tales of The Irish and The Great War,
    Woodbine Willie - The Soldiers' Poet, pp. 82–91, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 12 (2014) Template:ISBN

Nix, Dayne Edward, "Moral Injury and a First World War Chaplain: The Life of G.A. Studdert Kennedy. Lexington Books, 2021.

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