Current Information:

Age-23

24, Thorne Street, Barnes

39th Division had been heavily involved in the fighting when the Germans launched their first Spring offensive on 21st March, 1918 and 16th Rifle Brigade, along with the other battalions that made up 117 Brigade had been pushed further and further back across the old Somme battlefields until, by the end of the month, they were almost at the gates of Amiens, where the German advance was halted. But it had come at a terrible cost. The casualties sustained by 16th Rifle Brigade during that ten day ordeal amounted to over 450, either killed, wounded or missing and 39th Division had been so badly hit that when they were finally withdrawn from the battlefield they only had enough personnel to form one brigade, within which, what was left of 16th Rifle Brigade, was split between No. 3 Composite battalion and No. 5 Composite battalion. After a period of rest the division moved north and went into the line to the south of Ypres where they were engaged, among other things,  in constructing firing ranges and assault courses for the arriving American troops. 39th Division was one of those unlucky units to find themselves withdrawn from the fierce fighting on the Somme to the area where the enemy launched their second offensive in April and on 18th April No. 3 Composite battalion found themselves holding the line here, coming under the orders of the South African Regiment, when the Germans launched an unsuccessful attack with the objective of capturing Mount Kemmel  The Battalion Diary gives no details about what happened on that day other than to record that they suffered thirty casualties, one of whom was Frederick Kennings.