Jep Kenny

New Year's Day saw an email arrive in my in box which is similar to so many that we receive. It explained that amongst the family WWI medals was a medal named to a person who was not a family member. How the medal came to be with the family collection was a mystery.
In this case the medal is the 1914-15 Star awarded to 3041 Jep Francis Kenny. Jep was originally allocated to the 6th Battalion, AIF but transferred, firstly, to 58th Battalion then 57th Battalion during February and March 1916. Jep died of wounds on 17 July 1916 aged 19, one year and one day after he enlisted. He is buried in the Anzac Cemetery, Sailly-Sur-La-Lys.
Jep's mothers maiden name was Jesperson which I suspect inspired his name. Quite a bit of information was available about the Kenny family on several genealogy website. However, the usable information ceased around WWII. I then had to construct a family tree for Jep's sister Barbara Caroline Catherine Kenny who married George Wiffin Simmonds. The electoral rolls provided the names of Barbara's children which led me to contacting the wife of Jep's nephew.
Thank you to Belinda and her mother who sent me the medal. The returned medal tally is now 1611.