Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy

Born in Leeds, England, on 27 June 1883, Studdert Kennedy was the seventh of nine children born to Jeanette Anketell and William Studdert Kennedy, vicar of St Mary's, Quarry Hill in Leeds. His father William Studdert Kennedy was born in Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland, in 1826. Geoffrey's paternal grandfather, Robert Mitchell Kennedy, was Dean of Clonfert in County Galway, Ireland from 1850 until his death in 1864. One of Geoffrey's brothers was Hugh A. Studdert Kennedy, a biographer of American religious leader Mary Baker Eddy. Because of his Irish forefathers, Geoffrey always maintained he was an Irishman. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he gained a degree in classics and divinity in 1904. After a year's training at Ripon Clergy College, he became a curate at St Andrew's Church, Rugby, and then, in 1914, the vicar of St. Paul's, Worcester.

On the outbreak of World War I, Studdert Kennedy volunteered as a chaplain to the army on the Western Front, where he gained the nickname "Woodbine Willie". In 1917, he was awarded the Military Cross at Messines Ridge after running into no man's land to help the wounded during an attack on the German frontline. During the war he supported the British military effort with enthusiasm. Attached to a bayonet-training service, chaplain Kennedy toured with boxers and wrestlers to give morale-boosting speeches about the usefulness of the bayonet. One of his inspirational speeches is vividly described by A. S. Bullock as "the most extraordinary talk I ever heard'. Bullock notes that the listeners 'were a very rough, tough lot, but they sat spellbound", and quotes a section of the speech, at the end of which "everybody sprang to their feet and cheered him to the echo". He wrote a number of poems about his experiences, and these appeared in the books Rough Rhymes of a Padre (1918), and More Rough Rhymes (1919), among others. An anthology of his works was published under the title The Unutterable Beauty.

After the war, Studdert Kennedy was given charge of St Edmund, King and Martyr in Lombard Street, London. Having been converted to Christian socialism and pacifism during the war, he wrote Lies (1919), Democracy and the Dog-Collar (1921) (featuring such chapters as "The Church Is Not a Movement but a Mob", "Capitalism is Nothing But Greed, Grab, and Profit-Mongering" and "So-Called Religious Education Worse than Useless"), Food for the Fed Up (1921), The Wicket Gate (1923), and The Word and the Work (1925). He moved to work for the Industrial Christian Fellowship, for whom he went on speaking tours of Britain. His appointment as missioner for ICF released him from routine clerical duties to become an outspoken advocate for the working classes. One of his celebrated quotes was: "If finding God in our churches leads to us losing Him in our factories, then better we tear down those churches for God must hate the sight of them." It was on one of these tours that he was taken ill with the flu, which was complicated by his weak lungs. He died in Liverpool on 8 March 1929, exhausted at the age of 45. The Dean of Westminster refused burial at Westminster Abbey, because he said Studdert Kennedy was a "socialist", even though he had distrusted most politicians and had refused to join any political party. His funeral took place in Worcester, to which First World War veterans and poor working people flocked to pay their respects.

• Poetry • 1918: Rough Rhymes of a Padre: by "Woodbine Willie". London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1919: More Rough Rhymes of a Padre. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1920: Peace Rhymes of a Padre. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1922: Songs of Faith and Doubt. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1924: The Sorrows of God and Other Poems (anthology) R.R. Smith, New York • 1925: Lighten Our Darkness: Some Less Rough Rhymes of a Padre • 1927: The Unutterable Beauty: the collected poetry of G. A. Studdert Kennedy (anthology). London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1928: I Believe: Sermons on the Apostle's Creed First published as Food for the Fed-up (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1921). • 1929: Rhymes. [A selection from "Rough Rhymes. "More Rough Rhymes" and "Peace Rhymes."] (anthology). London: Hodder and Stoughtonn • Books • 1918: Rough Talks by a Padre delivered to officers and men of the B.E.F. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1918: The Hardest Part. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1918: God and the Sacrament: a reprint of a chapter of the author's book entitled The Hardest Part. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1919: Why Aren't All the Best Chaps Christians? London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1919: Lies. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1921: Democracy and the Dog Collar. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1921: Food for the Fed Up (US I Believe; sermons on the Apostles' creed). London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1923: The Wicket Gate: or plain bread. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1926: The Word and the Work. London: Longmans • 1927 I Pronounce Them: a story of man and wife – a novel. New York: George H Doran • 1928: The Warrior the Woman and the Christ: a study of the leadership of Christ. London: Wyman and Sons • 1928: Environment. E. Benn (32 pages) • 1932: The New Man in Christ. London: Hodder and Stoughton • 1932: When We Pray: a method of prayer taught by G.A. Studdert Kennedy. Hodder and Stoughton. Written by Ronald Sinclair • 193?: Meaning of the Real Presence. (5 pages reprinted from) The Witness, NY • Anthologies • 1947: The best of G.A. Studdert-Kennedy (Woodbine Willy): selected from his writings by a friend. Hodder and Stoughton • 2008: After War, Is Faith Possible? By Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy & Kerry Walters (editor). Lutterworth Press