Australians in the Battle of Britain. 24 August 1940

Jack Kennedy died on 13 July 1940 almost as soon as the Battle of Britain started. What happened next in this young Australian’s story?

With a Catholic padre officiating, he was buried with full honours at Holy Trinity, a small Anglican church close to Warmwell airfield. Service to country and empire link the dead of different faiths.

Back in Australia, Jack’s family were overwhelmed by grief. They placed a small notice in The Sydney Morning Herald and received many letters of condolence and phone calls. Masses were said for him at the family church at Holy Cross, Woollahra and Waverley College, his old school.

Back at 238 Squadron, the Committee of Adjustment gathered his sporting medals and trophies, uniform, even his cufflink box and an old theatre ticket to return to his family. But there was no trace of his flying log. His mother was devastated. It was a tangible link with her son—a record of his service life since he had left her. Jack’s parents both died early. Neither got over the death of their only son and the loss of that flying log had made their grief just that much harder to bear.

On 10 July 1947, almost seven years after Jack’s death, King George VI unveiled the Battle of Britain memorial window in honour of ‘The Few’ at Westminster Abbey. Jack’s parents had been invited to the ceremony but his mother had been ill for some months and had died on 20 June 1947. Despite the expense, John Kennedy would have attended if he could, but would not leave his dying wife. As it happened, a number of the Australian-based families were not able to attend, but the Australian High Commissioner arranged for each of them to be represented. John Kennedy was represented by Squadron Leader John Herington, the official historian of the RAAF’s activities in Europe during the Second World War.

 

Jack’s sister, Beryl, visited her brother’s grave in 1975. Standing in front of her brother’s memorial stone was a very moving experience. Memories of her elder brother, gone too soon, came back to her as she read the inscription chosen by her father: ‘In memory of our dear son and brother of Beryl who gave his life in the Battle of Britain’.