For those of us who are somewhat long in the tooth, the name Woodbine Willie might ring a bell somewhere deep within the memory. If pushed we might say he had something to do with the war but not sure which one and as to the Woodbine connection, he had something to do with that once famous cigarette. We would be correct; he was connected with the war, World War I in fact, and yes, he smoked Woodbines. However there was a great deal more to him than that!

He was born Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, the seventh of nine children to the Rev William Studdert Kennedy and his wife Jeanette on 27^th June 1883. His father was the vicar of St Mary’s church, Quarry Hill in Leeds. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and studied classics and divinity at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1904. He went on to Ripon Clergy College, became a curate in Rugby and in 1914 he became vicar of St Paul’s church in Worcester.

On the outbreak of World War I, aged 31, he volunteered as an army chaplain and was attached to a bayonet- training service. He toured the western front with a group of boxers and wrestlers giving enthusiastic morale boosting speeches about the use of the weapon. He saw his ministry as being in the thick of the fighting and that is where he went. He would go into no-mans-land to give help and comfort, a copy of the New Testament and of course a Woodbine to wounded and dying men with little thought for his own safety. In 1917 he was awarded the Military Cross at Messines Ridge. There is a story of how he once crawled out to a where a working party was putting up wire in front of their trench. When challenged by a nervous soldier who asked who he was, he said, "The church". The soldier then asked what the church was doing out in no-mans-land, his reply was, "Its job". He was popular with his flock for his irreverent preaching style and somewhat colourful language. He described his ministry as "taking a box of fags in your haversack and a great deal of love in your heart".

After the war, he became one of the country’s most famous religious authors, writing poems about his war experiences as well as books about the Church and society. The enthusiastic bayonet expert had become a pacifist and Christian Socialist and he toured the country giving lectures on both these topics. He died on 8^th March in 1929 on one of these tours in Liverpool. At his funeral procession in Worcester a crowd of more than 2,000 turned out and packets of Woodbines in their distinctive green, black and gold were tossed onto his cortege.

He is buried at St John’s cemetery in Worcester and there is a list of his achievements on the war memorial in his church. His love of his fellow man and his incredible courage are not mentioned, neither are his Woodbines!

In February 2013, the Civic Society of the city where he had trained for the church unveiled a plaque in his memory at the site of the Ripon Clergy College in Princess Road. This was the second such plaque because they had previously erected one in honour of another World War poet who had trained in Ripon, Wilfred Owen.