Charles Joseph Kennard

KENNARD, CHARLES JOSEPH

• Rank: Private
• Service No: 10219
• Date of Death: 16/05/1917
• Age: 32
• Regiment/Service: Dorsetshire Regiment "A" Coy. 6th Bn.
• Panel Reference: Bay 6.
• Memorial: ARRAS MEMORIAL
• Additional Information: Husband of Zona Annie Kennard, of 142, Hartfield Rd., Wimbledon, London. Also served at Gallipoli.
• [http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1575223/KENNARD,%20CHARL... CWGC)

Nick Barratt - Family Detective

"The birth certificate [of his daughter Ethel Ada Kennard] stated that Charles Joseph Kennard, 31, was a private in the 5th Battalion of the Dorset Regiment, having signed up at the start of the First World War. Before enlisting he had worked as a house decorator in south London.
Charles appears to have been somewhat of a free spirit. In the 1901 census he claimed to be 16, but was actually a year younger, and was boarding with the Lutchford family in Streatham, and working as an errand boy.
It seems he took the first opportunity to leave home, having had a rather unhappy childhood separated from his parents. From the age of six he was brought up by his maternal grandparents, Joseph and Barbara Hutson, at their home in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
Given Charles's difficult early life, some of his later behaviour in the Army can, perhaps, be explained. The Army is a disciplined profession, reliant upon receipt and execution of orders through a hierarchical chain of command; to Charles - used to fending for himself - it must have been a culture shock. It took him little time to get into trouble; his service record shows he was absent after tattoo on September 4, 1914 until the next day's reveille, for which he was confined to camp for three days.
A pattern emerges during his time in the Army: he was found drunk in town without a pass on February 16, 1916 - an offence exacerbated when he lied about his movements to a superior officer - and was sentenced to 21 days' field punishment, a brutal regime akin to hard labour when the "prisoner" was often made to wear irons.
In 1917 he was in trouble again, after being absent from parade on February 17, 1917, and disappearing from his post until midnight on February 19. This was a serious breach of discipline, and he was sent to the front line; three months later, a German bullet ended his life on May 17."