Ronnie was my uncle who I never met because he died 8 years before I was born in France. He was born in Ramsgate Kent in August 1913, the son of my grandmother Lillian Kennett and Samuel Levene. Samuel was the principal of the Jewish college in Minster, Montefiore College and Ronnie and my mother Estelle were his (illegitimate) children. He went to Ramsgate school until he was 9 years old and transferred to a private school in Eastbourne until he was 14 supported by his natural father who he called "guardie". After 14 he transferred to the Central school in Ramsgate where he was very academic. When the family moved to West Norwood in London he went to work with the New Zealand Assurance company. He was also in the Territorial Army and was called up in 1939 as a gunner (890705) in the Royal Artilliary. He was in France during the so called "phoney war" and during the winter of 1940 caught pneumonia. he also had an infected finger which killed him. My mother and grandmother went over to Dieppe with another couple and stayed in a hotel paid for by the Imperial war graves in Aix La Bataille, because the army surgeon Major Dick told them that although he had amputated Ronnie's arm he couldn't save him. They saw him buried and then returned home. His body was later moved to the larger military cemetery in
Dieppe, the Canadian war cemetry, Hautot-Sur-Mer, Seine-Maritime, France. Below is the reference in Casualties of “SURREY” Units, WW 2
Commonwealth War Dead 1939-1945;
KEMP, Gunner, RONALD, 890705, 98 (The Surrey and Sussex Yeomanry) Field Regt., Royal Artillery. 17 February 1940. Age 27. Son of Minnie Lillian Davies, of West Norwood, London, England. Grave Ref. A. 76.
