John James Kennedy was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 2nd August 1888, the son and only child of Edward and Anne Kennedy (née Harris). After his father died in 1890, his mother brought him to live with her parents.
After leaving school, John found work as a labourer for a butcher and also casually worked as a trimmer on steam ships in the Mercantile Marine.
He married Catherine O’Leary in Liverpool on the 4th June 1910, and they lived at 8, Court, 8 House, Burlington Street, Kirkdale, Liverpool, with their two children.
He engaged as a trimmer in the Engineering Department on board the Lusitania at Liverpool on the 12th April 1915, and joined the vessel on the morning of the 17th April before she left the River Mersey for the final time. As a trimmer, his monthly wage amounted to £6-0s.-0d.
He was killed three weeks later when the vessel was sunk and as body was never recovered from the sea and identified, he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill, London. He was aged 26 years.
In August 1915, the Cunard Steam Ship Company forwarded the balance of pay owing to John Kennedy in respect of his sea service on the Lusitania to his widow. This was reckoned to be from the 17th April 1915, the day the vessel had left Liverpool, until the 8th May 1915, 24 hours after she had been sunk. In addition, The Liverpool and London War Risks Insurance Association Limited granted Catherine Kennedy a yearly pension to compensate
her for the loss of her husband. This amounted to £13-0s.-0d. (£13.00p.) which was payable at the rate of £1-1s.-8d. (£1.08½p.) per month.
The records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission state that John James Kennedy’s father was named Edward, but this is incorrect, and by the time the records were compiled, his mother had married a Mr. Challoner, although this name is recorded as Chandler in the records!
His widow Catherine married William Loyden in March 1917, and died in a Liverpool Maternity Hospital in 1924.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool England Catholic Baptisms 1741 – 1919, Liverpool England Catholic Marriages 1754 – 1933, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UniLiv. PR 13/24, PRO BT 100/345, PRO BT 334, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated – 5th February 2024.