Local Faces - Woodbine Willie (1883-1929)

I read in last night's Evening Post that there is an exhibition about Woodbine Willie at the Parish Church until 13th June. Must visit and report back but its being mentioned now as there's not a lot of time left for others to visit.

Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy was born in 1883 in a vicarage in Quarry Hill, the son of vicar William Studdert Kennedy.

He was an army chaplain during the First World War, serving on the Somme and at Messines Ridge where he was awarded a Military Cross in 1917. He went to Leeds Grammar School and after the war was curate at the Parish Church and St Mary’s Quarry Hill.

His nickname comes from his habit of comforting the weary troops with cigarettes. He was also a poet and his view of the nickname is summed up by him thus:


THEY gave me this name like their nature,
Compacted of laughter and tears,
A sweet that was born of the bitter,
A joke that was torn from the years.

Of their travail and torture, Christ's fools,
Atoning my sins with their blood,
Who grinned in their agony sharing
The glorious madness of God.

Their name! Let me hear it--the symbol
Of unpaid--unpayable debt,
For the men to whom I owed God's Peace,
I put off with a cigarette.

Woodbine Willie died in 1929. He was only 45, but a combination of asthma and overwork brought on his early end. His funeral was in Worcester where he ran a parish. The crowds there were enormous and on his coffin were many wreaths with sentimental notes. One however had no note, just a packet of Woodbines.

Ena Dunn hand stitched this piece on printed fabric (20hours).

Education -Panel and Leeds Grammar School

There were several false starts in the design of the Education Panel but the revised format was ready to go in 1999. The style of the panel reflects the more formal style of the Health Panel, monochrome buildings suggesting that they are the housing for education and the people in glorious technicolour the product and life of the education process.



Leeds Grammar School may have been founded as early as 1341 but it's foundation is usually taken as 6th July 1552, dating from the will of William Sheafield. In 1624 John Harrison provided a new building on North Street (near the site of the Grand Theatre) where the school stayed until 1859 and its move to the new building in Clarendon Road. Rev. Alfred Barry was headmaster at the time and the buildings were designed by his brother (Their father designed the Houses of Parliament). This embroidery shows the architects elevation of the new school built in the 1990s at Alwoodley Gates. Mr Collins was head at the time of that move. When the panel was made the school was for boys only. Now, with the name changed to The Grammar School at Leeds, the girls from Leeds Girl's High School have joined them.


The straight lines of the architect's elevation were very difficult to maintain in embroidery. Several attempts at hand and machine embroidery were thwarted by kinks and bends where none should be. Finally the effect was achieved using couching - lines of cotton perle across the surface of the printed fabric with tiny stitches holding them down.


The original plan for the Education Panel had been more in the style of the Community Spirit panel with crowds of students spilling from the buildings. These pieces were embroidered for the earlier design by Mary Mellor and Ann Barker. So far they have not been used but are beautiful, and ready when someone else takes up the challenge to create more panels.