“Woodbine Willie”, or to give him his real name, the Reverend Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy was a British Army chaplain in the First World War.
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He was one of those Christians who believed that the the church should not wait for people to come to it but should go out to the people.
And it was this belief that took him to the Western Front. There he quietly listened to the fears and worries of ordinary soldiers and shared his Woodbine cigarettes with them…gaining him the nickname: “Woodbine Willie”.
Loved by officers and men alike, he stood up to generals who didn’t like his sermons, and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery.
When he died, thousands thronged the streets of his adopted city of Worcester to say farewell.
This is the story of “Woodbine Willie”, the soldier’s chaplain.
Rev. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy MC 1883 - 1929
Born: Leeds
Died Liverpool
Buried: Worcester