Service: Royal Navy (HMS Paragon)
Service No: J/23344/PO
Date & place of birth: 14 April 1896, Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland
Date & place of death: 18 March 1917 (aged 20) off the Kent coast
Able Seaman Kennett was slightly unusual in that his family worked on the Petworth Park Estate although they were not local, having come over from Ireland, and also in going into the Navy, when most local recruits went into the Army.
Family background
George Kennett was born in Clonmel in Ireland on 14 April 1896. His parents were Henry and Mary (sometimes May) Kennett. We do not know when they moved to Petworth – certainly after 1901 – and they were living in North Street by 1911, when George Senior was a general labourer on the Petworth Park Estate. George had a twin brother Henry, another brother Charles, and sisters Edith and Ethel. He was working as an errand boy in 1911 at the age of 14.
Military service
Able Seaman Kennett enlisted in the Navy on 11 February 1913. Having served on various vessels, his final service was on the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Paragon.
Death and commemoration
On 17 March 1917, fighting alongside HMS Llewellyn in an action in the Dover Strait with eight German torpedo boats, Paragon was sunk by torpedo. Able Seaman George Kennett was killed during this action. He was 21 years old. His body was recovered, and he is buried in St. James Cemetery, Dover.
Subsequent family history
George’s twin is not found in forces records so presumably did not serve, but cannot be found in death records here so may have moved abroad.