Wednesday 29 March 2017

James Kenner's War (1914 - 1918)

A fellow researcher pointed me in the direction of this article that appeared in the Sheffield Daily Independent dated 30th January 1929


James seemed to be an interesting subject for an article on the site especially when I came across this article from the North Devon Journal dated 10th July 1924. The Kenner family had strong West Country links


The Sheffield Daily Independent report seems to have been rather furtive about his war service. James it appears was solely in charge and responsible for conducting chemical warfare on the Western Front by using phosgene (chlorine) gas.

Unfortunately when I began to do more research on James, I came across this article by Lord Todd in The Biographical Memoirs of Members of the Royal Society November 1975 (vol 21). Given the comprehensive nature of the article, I took my research no further. 

It is also interesting to note that until I was contacted, I had no idea that a Sheffield chemist was so closely involved in such a terrible activity. 

 


The First Rock n' Roll Act at Sheffield City Hall

A fellow researcher contacted me with the following question -

Who and when were the first rock'n'roll/pop band to play at the City Hall?

He had found that Buddy Holly and the Crickets played there on March 4th 1958 but asked if I knew of an act before that?

After a bit of delving around, and the help of the excellent Sheffield History Forum, it was a bit of a surprise when we found the answer

According to the listing, Nat King Cole preceded Johnnie Ray by a few days in April 1954, and he was preceded by another jazz singer Sarah Vaughan in 1953.

Johnnie Ray was the first "rock n roll" singer to play there on 19th April 1954.