Major Lionel Williams KENNAN (66657) MBE
Royal Army Service Corps, 18th Division

Date of birth: 20th June 1914
Date of death: 26th December 1942

Died aged 28
Buried at Kranji War Cemetery Plot 13 Row B Grave 12
He was born at Priory Terrace, Leamington Spa on the 20th of June 1914 the son of John Joseph Kennan, borough engineer, and Ethel Marion (nee Cleaver) of 34, Lillington Road, Leamington Spa.

He was educated at Greyfriars Preparatory School, Beech Lawn, Leamington Spa and at the King’s School Canterbury from September 1928 to July 1932 where he was in Langley House. He was a member of the Rugby XV, and the Rowing IV, being Captain of Boats and represented the school at athletics.
He went on to St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps.

On leaving university he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps on the 1st of February 1936 with seniority from the 30th of August 1934 and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 30th of August 1937. He was promoted to Captain on the 1st of December 1939 and to temporary Major on the same date.

He was married on the 8th of March 1942 to Dorothy Renee (nee Clayton-Heslop) of "Rose Court", 1, Rockland Drive, Harvey Lane, Norwich.

On the outbreak of war, he went to France with the BEF and was awarded the MBE (Military Division) for his gallantry and resourcefulness in evacuating his unit from Belgium and France in 1940.

He was captured by the Japanese on the 15th of February 1942 at the fall of Singapore. He died from bronchial pneumonia in a prisoner of war camp.

He is commemorated on war memorial at Lillington and on the memorials at All Saints Parish Church, Leamington Spa and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
Langley House

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