INFORMATION
Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy MC (1883–1929) was an English Anglican priest and poet. He was nicknamed Woodbine Willie during World War I for giving Woodbine cigarettes to the soldiers he met as well as spiritual aid to injured and dying soldiers.
Born in Leeds 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.[1] One of Geoffrey’s brothers was Hugh A. Studdert Kennedy, a biographer of American religious leader Mary Baker Eddy.