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Owing to vandalism, neglect and the uncertainty of the future of North Merchiston Cemetery in Edinburgh, efforts by the Royal Highland Fusiliers to place a marker over the unmarked plot of Private Charles Kennedy had been thwarted. However, recently Edinburgh City Council decided to take over the cemetery, clearing unwanted trees, bushes and undergrowth allowing the marking of Charles Kennedy's grave to go ahead. The ceremony took place on the 28th April 2001, 94 years after his funeral. It was organised by the Royal Highland Fusiliers and attended by two relatives, one from Canada who had carried out extensive research into Kennedy. |
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For the award of the Victoria Cross. [ London Gazette, 18 October 1901 ]. Dewetsdorp, South Africa, 22 November 1900, Private Charles Kennedy, 2nd Bn, Highland Light Infantry.
Carried a comrade, who was dangerously wounded and bleeding to death, from Gibralter Hill to the hospital, a distance of three-quarters of a mile, under a very hot fire. On the following day, volunteers having been called for to take a message to the Commandant across a space over which it was almost certain death to venture, Private Kennedy at once stepped forward. He did not, however, succeed in delivering the message, as he was severely wounded before he had gone twenty yards.Charles Kennedy was invested with his Victoria Cross by King Edward VII at St James' Palace on the 17th December 1901. He subsequently failed to meet the Army's physical requirements owing to his wound and was discharged from the Service on 25th June 1902. He then returned to Edinburgh. At Edinburgh on 24th April 1907, he was again called on to show his bravery when a horse bolted with a contractor's cart in Leith Walk and in attempting to stop it he was knocked down and the wheels passed over him. Kennedy died on the way to the Royal Infirmary and was buried in the North Merchiston Cemetery on 28th April 1907. Following Kennedy's funeral however, a headstone was not erected over his grave. Medal entitlement of Private Charles Kennedy - 2nd Bn, Highland Light Infantry
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Iain Stewart, 26 September 2002