Kearney, JJ
(1883 - 1915)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
29th September 1883
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1898 - 1899
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
78 Belsize Park Gardens, South Hampstead
REGIMENT
Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Yeomanry
FINAL RANK:
Private
DATE OF DEATH:
21st August 1915
AGE AT DEATH:
31
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Gallipoli
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Green Hill Cemetery. II C 6
Private James John Kearney
Born on September 29th 1883, James was the son of an Irish Surgeon, also named James Kearney, and his wife, Sarah. His father died when he was very young, and by the time he was seven he was living in Ilkley, Yorkshire, with his new stepfather, a man named George Brown. After spending some time at Aysgarth School, in Yorkshire, James started at Dulwich in May 1898 after the family moved to London. He was at the College for just over a year, leaving in the summer of 1899, having played for the 1st XI at cricket during the early part of that summer. After leaving he later went on to Downing College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A., as well as representing the College at cricket. From university he took employment as an engineer in the mining industry, and spent time running mines in South America, before returning to England to take up farming, and the breeding of polo ponies.
James volunteered for service in the autumn of 1914 and was initially designated to wait to take up a commission; this frustrated him, however, and he enlisted in the Gloucestershire Yeomanry. He was sent to the Mediterranean with his new unit the following spring and went on to take part in the invasion of Gallipoli. It was while serving there that he was killed in action, during a charge on August 21st, and is buried in Green Hill Cemetery there.
