Lieutenant Norman Charles Kearney
| Date of Birth | 6 September 1891 |
|---|---|
| Age at Death | 26 |
| Date of Death | 27 april 1918 |
| Service Number | 18034 |
| Military Service | |
| Merton Address | 95 Cromwell Road, Wimbledon |
| Local Memorial |
Additional Information
Lieutenant Norman Charles Kearney was born in Battersea, Wandsworth on 6 September 1891. His father, Alan Wells Kearney, was a private tutor who had previously been a priest. Alan had emigrated to Australia in 1878, working as a school teacher and then a headmaster. He married Bertha Louise Mount in Geelong in 1879. Norman had five older siblings, all of whom were born in Australia, but Norman was born after their return to England. At the age of 19, according to the 1911 census, he was living with his mother Bertha and his siblings at 43 Cromford Road, West Hill, Wandsworth and working as an insurance clerk. His father wasn’t present when the census was taken.
On 24 April 1915 Norman enlisted in Kingston for ‘short service’ in the army . Short service enlistment had been introduced on the instructions of Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, in August 1914. Under this a man could ‘serve for three years or the duration of the war, whichever was the longer’. Norman was initially in the Army reserve and was at the time living in Cromwell Road, Wimbledon. On 25 December 1915, at the age of 24, he married 21 year old Frances Catherine Burrille Howes at the Church of Holy Trinity and St Peter, Surrey.
On 9 February 1916 he was posted to 9th Battalion East Surrey Regiment, serving at home until 15 July 1916. His regimental number was 18034. He was appointed lance corporal on 6 July 1916 and was posted to British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front on 15 July. Less than a year later, on 16 March 1917, he was discharged to a temporary commission at the RAF’s No 1 Training Depot at Stamford. There he trained as a pilot in the 106 squadron of the East Surrey Regiment.
On 27 April 1918, by now a second lieutenant, he was badly injured in an accident when piloting an aircraft REC2424 which banked steeply with a failing engine resulting in a nose dive. He died the same day at Pewton Mewsey in Andover. He was 26 years old. An enquiry into the accident later that year concluded that it occurred as a result of pilot error.
Lieutenant Kearney was buried on 2 May 1915 at Putney Vale Cemetery (D.5.1238) and is remembered on the south wall of the United Apostolic Church (formerly St. Peter’s) in Kohat Road, Wimbledon SW19.