Mike Kennedy

The Eulogy given by his grandson Iain at Mike's funeral on Friday 14th October

Edward Oliver as you we all know as Mike was born in Dublin on 1st June 1920. The younger brother to Pat and Kit.

 His father survived the 1st WW as a Medic and on return became a Medic in the prison service.

 He decided to move the family to London in 1926 and became a Prison Officer at Pentonville prison. Mike continued his schooling there and within a year or 2 the family moved to Swansea, his father joining the local prison. This is where his love of Swansea City FC started which he often denied when they lost which was frequently.

 Mike left school and moved to London to become an Articled Clerk in a Solicitors Office.

When the war broke out he joined the RAF as an AC1, the equivalent of an Army Private but was soon appointed as an RAF Policeman due to his legal background.

 He spent most of the war in India which was under threat of invasion by the Japanese and during the course of the war Mike rose through the ranks to become a Flight Lieutenant.

When the Allies turned the course of the war, he was part of the Forces that drove the Japanese south through the jungles of Burma and Malaya, finally liberating Singapore.

He was involved in the liberation of a POW camp holding British and Australian POWs, he accepted the surrender of the Japanese and was given the sword of the Commanding Officer.

The Samurai Sword caused an international incident in 1979 when I discovered my latest addition to my toy collection as a 4 year old. My Grandma hit the roof as Mike was told to dispose of the said sword in the loft but as we found out recently he simply hid it in the back of his wardrobe.

Mike left the RAF for a short period and took up his duties with the solicitors he had worked for prior to the outbreak of WW2. He was not satisfied with his role in civvy street and re-joined the RAF in 1946 as a Pilot Officer where he was part of the Investigating team appointed to track down War Criminals both in the Far East and Europe.

(This photo was taken when Mike and others had a 90th Birthday celebration at the Church)

In 1946 he met Margot and married in 1947. In 1950 he was sent to Egypt. The family went with him. There was trouble brewing there which eventually resulted in the Suez Crisis. The service families’ quarters (mainly flats) were being targeted by Arab snipers. Along with another off duty RAF Officer and armed only with pistols Mike was mentioned in despatches for successfully driving off a group of snipers from the flats.
 
He returned to the UK IN 1952 and whilst stationed in Wiltshire he was responsible for setting up the RAF Police Dog School. No doubt many of you will have seen displays by these dogs at various Military Tattoos in GB and Europe.

In 1954 he was posted to Singapore. The family went along too. The island was relatively safe but there was still trouble in the jungles of Malaya left over from the war. It was this he was sent to deal with and to prevent trouble spreading on to the island.

Mike returned to the UK in 1956 was stationed in Wiltshire again. He later took up posts in Germany Aden and other parts of the Middle East. He returned to be stationed at Gloucester until his retirement in 1975 by which time he had gained the rank of Wing Commander which is the RAF equivalent of a Lt-Colonel.

 He then returned to The Ministry of Defence where he worked closely with the National Security Services.

He then went to work for the Army as an Investigator looking into the backgrounds of service personnel who were to handle classified material. He finally retired properly in 1985.

 No pipe and slippers for this man though as he started doing Voluntary Charity work for SSAFA, the soldiers, Sailors and Airmen’s Family Association who provided assistance in many forms to ex Servicemen and their families who had fallen on hard times. He did this for a further 10 yrs.
 
When Grandma died in 1997 he was lost but in true form he dusted himself down and got on with life. He then fully retired and lived out his days in Staunton.

 On a personal note I am extremely proud to have had a Grandfather who gave so much of his adult life in service to his country. He was always extremely interested and proud of my rugby exploits and we shared many a conversation on how his many football teams never lost at the weekend, it was a shame he never put this results on a pool coupon!!!!

-----------------------------