Lance Sergeant William Stephen Kenealy VC, recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, is born in Wexford, County Wexford, on December 26, 1886.

Kenealy’s father, John, is a colour sergeant in the Royal Irish Regiment. When his father retires from the army, the family moves to the district of Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, where his father works as a check-weigher at Bryn Hall Colliery. Kenealy becomes a coal miner at age 13. Ten years later, he enlists into the army, signing up for seven years. He joins the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, British Army, as a private during World War I.

On April 25, 1915, west of Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Ottoman Empire, Kenealy is 28 years old when he performs an act of bravery for which he is awarded the Victoria Cross. Three companies, and the Headquarters of the 1st Bn. Lancashire Fusiliers, in effecting a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to the west of Cape Helles, are met by a very deadly fire from hidden machine guns which causes a great number of casualties. The survivors, however, rush up to and cut the wire entanglements, notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy, and after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs are gained and the position is maintained. Among the many very gallant officers and men engaged in this most hazardous undertaking, Capt. Willis, Serjt. Richards, and Pte. Kenealy are selected by their comrades as having performed the most signal acts of bravery and devotion to duty.

Kenealy is one of the six members of the regiment elected by their colleagues in the regiment for the award, and described in the press as “six VC’s before breakfast.” Lieutenant-General Sir Ian Hamilton, the overall Allied army commander at Gallipoli, orders that the beach be renamed Lancashire Landing because of his conviction that “no finer feat of arms has ever been achieved by the British Soldier – or any other soldier – than the storming of these beaches.”

The other five members of the regiment who receive the award as a result of the landing are Cuthbert Bromley, John Elisha Grimshaw, Alfred Joseph Richards, Frank Edward Stubbs and Richard Raymond Willis.

Shortly afterward, Kenealy is promoted to corporal and then lance sergeant. He is seriously wounded in the Battle of Gully Ravine on June 28, 1915, and dies the following day. He is buried at Lancashire Landing Cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula.