LM2353 Sdt 2e Cl. Kenneth Weeks, 2 RMLE.
Born at Chestnut Hill, Boston on 30 December 1889, Kenneth was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before moving to the college of Beaux Arts in Paris in 1910. Here, he decided that French life suited him and that he would become a writer and live in Paris permanently (he was the author of five books of short stories and several plays). Following the outbreak of war, therefore, he decided to enlist in the defence of his adopted country and walked into the Foreign Legion recruiting office in central Paris on 21 August 1914. Sent into the trenches of the Somme by the first winter of the war, Kenneth became his section bomb-thrower and, in the early spring of 1915 was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Kenneth was heavily involved in the actions near Souchez during the Artois battle of May-June 1915. He was last seen alive on 17 June running towards the German third line with his right arm extended as if in the motion of bomb-throwing, but he was never seen alive again. Kenneth's body was found in November 1915 and buried in the French military cemetery at Pylones, near St.Eloi, but was repatriated to the USA post-war.
17 June 1915
Research by: David O'Mara, Croonaert Research Services.
