Studdert Kennedy, Geoffrey Anketell

(1883-1929)

   Born in Leeds, Yorkshire, the son of a clergyman, he graduated in classics and divinity from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1904, after which he taught for two years at a school in West Kirby in Liverpool. He was ordained in 1908 and served in several parishes until 1915, when he became an Army chaplain with the troops in France and Flanders. The nickname "Woodbine Willie" summed up his ministry - a packet of fags (cigarettes) and a heart full of love. He was awarded the Military Cross for his tending of the wounded under fire during the attack on the Messines Ridge (1917). He was appointed a chaplain to king George V in 1919. He died on a speaking tour in Liverpool working for the Industrial Christian Fellowship (ICF). His publications: Rough Rymes of a Padre, 1918. More Rough Rhymes, 1919. Songs of Faith and Doubt, 1922. The Unutterable Beauty, 1927. Some of his poems: "Awake, Awake to Love and Work!" "Indifference," "Is it a Dream?" "My Peace I Give unto You," "Roses in December," "The Lord of the World," "Woodbine Willie."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Eerdman's Book of Christian Poetry. Pat Alexander and Veronica Zundel, eds. William B. Eerdmans, 1981. Biography of Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWstuddert.htm). Poems for the Great Days. Thomas Curtis Clark, and Robert Earle Clark, ed. AbingdonCokesbury Press, 1948. Poems that Touch the Heart. A.L. Alexander, ed. Doubleday, 1956. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Treasury of Christian Poetry. Lorraine Eitel, ed. Fleming H. Revell, 1982. The Treasury of Religious Verse. Donald T. Kauffman, ed. Fleming H. Revell, 1962. The Unutterable Beauty. The Collected Poetry of G.A. Studdert Kennedy. Hodder and Stoughton, 1927 (http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/dasc/TUB.HTM).