Ludovic Kennedy
| Sir Ludovic Kennedy | |
|---|---|
Kennedy in 1958
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|
| Born |
Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy 3 November 1919 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 18 October 2009 (aged 89) Salisbury, Wiltshire |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Journalist, broadcaster, political activist and author |
| Spouse(s) | Moira Shearer (1950–2006) |
| Children | Alastair, Ailsa, Rachel and Fiona |
Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy (3 November 1919 – 18 October 2009) was a British journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author best known for re-examining cases such as the Lindbergh kidnapping and the murder convictions of Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, and for his role in the abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom.
Kennedy was born in 1919 at Edinburgh, the son of a career Royal Navy officer, Edward Coverley Kennedy, and his wife, Rosalind Grant, daughter of Sir Ludovic Grant, 11th Baronet. His mother Rosalind was a cousin of the Conservative politician Robert Boothby, later Lord Boothby. He had two younger sisters, Morar and Katherine. Morar married the playwright Royce Ryton in 1954. Katherine married Major Ion Calvocoressi in 1947.
He was schooled at Eton College (where he played in a jazz band with Humphrey Lyttelton), and studied for a year at Christ Church, Oxford, until the outbreak of war.
Kennedy's father, by then a 60-year-old retired captain, returned to the navy and was given command of HMS Rawalpindi, a hastily militarised P&O steamship, known as an Armed Merchant Cruiser. On 23 November 1939, while on patrol southeast of Iceland the Rawalpindi encountered two of the most powerful German warships, the small battleships (or battlecruisers) Scharnhorst and Gneisenau trying to break out through the GIUK gap into the Atlantic. The Rawalpindi was able to signal the German ships' location back to base. Despite being hopelessly outgunned, Captain Edward Coverley Kennedy of the Rawalpindi decided to fight, rather than surrender as demanded by the Germans. Scharnhorst sank Rawalpindi; of her 312 crew 275 (including her captain) were killed.Captain Kennedy was posthumously mentioned in dispatches and his decision to fight against overwhelming odds entered the folklore of the Royal Navy. His son Ludovic was twenty years old.
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