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William Keneally VC (sometimes spelt Kenealy), (26 December 1886-29 June 1915) was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Born in Wexford, his father was a colour sergeant in the Royal Irish Regiment. When his father retired from the army, the family moved to the district of Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire where his father worked as a check-weigher at Bryn Hall Colliery. William Keneally became a coal miner at age 13. Ten years later, he enlisted into the army, signing up for 7 years.
At the time of his award, he was 28 years old, and a private in the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army during the First World War.
On 25 April 1915 west of Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, three companies and the Headquarters of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, when landing at W Beach, were met by a very deadly fire from hidden machine-guns which caused a large number of casualties. The survivors, however, rushed up and cut the wire entanglements notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy and after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs were gained and the position maintained.
Private Keneally was one of the six members of the regiment elected by their colleagues in the regiment for the award, and described in the press as 'six VC's before breakfast'. Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton, the overall Allied army commander at Gallipoli ordered that the beach be renamed Lancashire Landing because of his conviction that "no finer feat of arms has ever been achieved by the British Soldier - or any other soldier - than the storming of these beaches".
The other five members of the regiment who received the award as a result of the landing were Cuthbert Bromley, John Elisha Grimshaw, Alfred Joseph Richards, Frank Edward Stubbs and Richard Raymond Willis.
Shortly afterwards he was promoted to corporal and then lance-sergeant. He was seriously wounded in the Battle of Gully Ravine on 28 June 1915 and died the next day.
References
- Find a grave website, entry for William Keneally
- Lancashire Fusiliers at 1914-1918.net
- UK Ministry of Defence website, Gallipoli Day
Listed in order of publication year
- The Register of the Victoria Cross (1981, 1988 and 1997)
- The Irish Sword (Brian Clarke 1986)
- Irelands VCs ISBN 1-899243-00-3 (Dept of Economic Development 1995)
- Monuments to Courage (David Harvey, 1999)
- Irish Winners of the Victoria Cross (Richard Doherty & David Truesdale, 2000)