Quick Facts
Biography
Major-General Sir John Noble Kennedy GCMG, KCVO, KBE, CB, MC (31 August 1893 – 15 June 1970) was a senior British Army officer who served as Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff during World War II.
Military career
Kennedy joined the Royal Navy in 1911 and then transferred to the Royal Artillery at the start of World War I in 1914 going on to see action in France, Flanders and Egypt. He was appointed Deputy Director of Military Operations at the War Office in 1938. He also served in World War II as Director of Plans at the War Office from 1939, Commander Royal Artillery for 52nd Division from early 1940 and as Director of Military Operations at the War Office from later that year. He went on to be Assistant Chief of the Imperial General Staff in October 1943 until February 1945.
He was Governor of Southern Rhodesia from 1947 to 1953.
Family
In 1926 Kennedy married Isabella Rosamond Georgiana Joicey-Cecil (1901–1941). Kennedy married Catherine Fordham (1905–1969) in 1941; on 2 January 1939 Catherine Fordham had been appointed Lady-in-Waiting to Her Royal Highness Princess Helena Victoria (1870–1948) of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.