Patrick Joseph Kennedy (SN 2676) was born in Smeaton and was a pupil at the North Creswick State School. He was a 24 year old labourer when he enlisted at Ballarat on August 2nd 1915. He embarked as a reinforcement for the 23rd Battalion from Melbourne on board the Ulysses in October 1915 and reached France the following March. Just a few weeks later in mid-April he was hospitalised with acute nephritis, first at Camiers in France then in London. He was assessed as unfit for active service and was returned to Australia aboard the Euripides, reaching Melbourne on August 8th 1916. He died just six months later on February 27th 1917 at the age of 25 and is buried in Ballarat’s New Cemetery.

Lucas’s Staffs Appreciation of Brave Men, the original Avenue register, records his name as Joseph P. Kennedy