BORN HULL 1882. SON OF ARTHUR MAYDWELL KENDALL (1855-1923) & JULIA.REEVES (1849-1939), OF 87 RYDE STREET, HULL. SON OF A JOURNALIST. HE WAS AN INVOICE FORWARDING CLERK FOR JAMES DARBY & CO, WHOLESALE GLASS & LEAD MERCHANTS, NILL STREET, HULL. BOARDING AT THIS 1911 CENSUS ADDRESS. HE RESIDED AT HUDDERSFIELD IN 1914.
HE ENLISTED IN HULL, NOVEMBER, 1915. SERVED WITH THE 1ST EAST RIDING YEOMANRY. DROWNED ON 15/04/1917, WHEN THE TROOP SHIP, “ARCADIAN”, WAS SUNK BY UB74, IN THE AGEAN SEA. HE IS BURIED IN SYRA NEW BRITISH CEMETERY, GREECE. HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT”.
HE WAS AGED 35 AND UNMARRIED. HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS FATHER, ARTHUR. HE ALSO LEFT BROTHER, ARTHUR, AND SISTER, DAISY.
R.M.S.P. Co. Arcadian was converted into a transport during the First World War. On April 15th, 1917, Arcadian with a company of 1,335 troops and crew was proceeding from Salonika to Alexandria, and was in the southern Aegean, 26 miles N.E. of Milo.
The troops had just completed boat-drill when a German submarine UC-74 approached unseen and discharged a torpedo which inflicted such extensive damage that the vessel sank in six minutes. Fortunately the men´s recent exercise at the boats imparted steadiness and confidence and 1,058 were rescued, either through their own efforts or by the escorting destroyer.
The number drowned was 277 and, had it not been for the sudden capsizing of the vessel, many more would have been saved. Those lost included 19 army officers and 214 other ranks, as well as ten naval ratings and 34 members of the crew.
A considerable amount of wreckage and spars was sucked down and this, coming to the surface with great force, killed many who were swimming in the water.
On 15th April 1917, HMT Arcadian was sunk off Melos in the Aegean Sea. Nineteen men of the draft of 43 ERY men destined to join the 1/1st ERY in Palestine were among those drowned. The regiment’s war diary notes 2nd Lt. (Richard Duncan) Ullyott and 13 men arriving on May 9th, with 19 reported drowned. In addition, Robert Bell was a former ERY man, then attached to the Lincolnshire Yeomanry and Harry Matthews may also have been with the ERY, though the evidence is ambiguous. So the total losses for the regiment on this occasion may have been 21. Though there were a couple of experienced NCOs in this group, the majority were young recruits.
