“THE KENSINGTONS” 13TH LONDON REGIMENT

A brief account of the history of the Kensingtons before the Great War is given in the opening chapter of this book. In 1908 the TF came into existence and with it the unwieldy London Regiment with its 26 battalions, among which was the 13th (County of London) Battalion (Kensington). When war broke out the battalion was already allocated to the 4th London Brigade, 2nd London Division, but in November 1914 it left the division and went to France, arriving on 4th; it was allocated to 25th Brigade, 8th Division, a newly formed regular division, with which it fought its first major action, at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915. After a spell on the Lines of Communication the battalion joined the re-formed 1st London Division (now numbered 56th) in 168th Brigade, and it fought in that brigade on the Western Front for the rest of the war. In September 1914 a second line battalion was formed (2/13th) and assigned to179th Brigade 60th Division. An unexpected diversion occurred at the end of April 1916 when the brigade was sent to Ireland on internal security duties following the Easter rebellion. A fortnight later it returned to England and on 21 June 60th Division began its move to France. After about four months in the Vimy sector the division was transferred to Macedonia where the battalion arrived at the end of November 1916. Its spell in that theatre was comparatively short for in May 1917 the division moved again – to Palestine where it served with the EEF till the end of the war.
This history is arranged in two parts, the first deals with the first line battalion, 1/4th, and is written by Sgt Bailey; the second part is the history of the 2/4th, written by Sgt Hollier. There is a final chapter covering the post-war period up to 1935, written by one of the commanding officers. The Roll of Honour lists the dead (60 officers 1003 men), alphabetically by ranks, without identifying battalion, nor does the list of Honours and Awards identfy the battalion. The two sergeants have a produced a very workmanlike record of the battalions even though, according to their introduction, relevant material had not been easy to come by and official records were scarce. Nevertheless, aided by the loan of diaries and the assistance of fellow members, I am sure the result was very much appreciated by the Kensingtons’ Old Comrades’ Association.