Alexander Kennedy, company director; born September 2, 1917, died June 12, 1999
Alexander Kennedy was educated at Kelvinside Academy and Loretto School, Musselburgh, where he was head of school, pipe major, and record holder for the 440 yards. He graduated MA from Cambridge, where he was a member of the University Relay Team.
He joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in 1937 and was posted to Hong Kong in August 1939, just before the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. He joined the 2nd Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla and was given command of MTB 09.
He met Rachel Lockhart Smith, daughter of the Acting Governor of Hong Kong, during the summer of 1940 and they became engaged in October the following year. By then war with the Japanese was imminent and she departed from Hong Kong on December 7, 1941, with her parents on the ship Ulysses. The following morning the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Simultaneously, the attack on Hong Kong began. On Christmas Day 1941 the MTBs received the one-word signal that simply said, ''Go''. Hong Kong had fallen. Linking up with the four other boats from the flotilla and carrying some 70 men, they sailed under cover of darkness over to the New Territories where, undetected by the Japanese, they sank the MTBs and made their way ashore into occupied territory.
Guided by Chinese guerrillas they walked for three days through the jungle and crossed into Free China. The journey that followed took them by truck, sampan, and train right across China and into Northern Burma, then south on the Burma Road through Mandalay and down to Rangoon. The invading Japanese were never far behind, but the strangest of many incidents was meeting a man from Clydebank called Baird who happened to have his pipes with him. It was Burns Night, so they took it in turn to play old favourites like along the edge of a paddy field in the twilight. They reached Rangoon after 51 days and more than 3000 miles.
The Ulysses, meanwhile, had been bombed after leaving Hong Kong, but had made it to Singapore for running repairs. From there it took Rachel Smith and her parents
to Auckland for final refuelling before crossing the Pacific to Panama. Once through the canal, they were in the dangerous waters off
the east coast of America. The Ulysses was not to escape. On April 11 she was hit three times by torpedoes. Remarkably, everyone on board made it to the boats and
was rescued by an American destroyer. The final leg across the Atlantic took the Smiths to the Firth of Clyde where they disembarked at Greenock.
Unknown to them, Alick Kennedy was also bound for the Clyde having sailed from South Africa with 600 Italian PoWs. It was early evening when he finally arrived on a truck piled high with kit bags at Central Station. He called home, but not expecting him, his parents were out. The cook, however, mentioned that they had had lunch that day with some people from Hong Kong. Their name was Smith. Having gone right round the world in opposite directions and after all that had happened, he and Rachel had arrived safely in Glasgow on the same day. They were married soon after.
In 1945 Alick returned to Hong Kong Lieut-Cmdr Hong Kong, Staff Officer (Logistics) Pacific Fleet, Despatches, and was there for the official surrender of the Japanese, and so he managed to complete the circle which he had started on Christmas Day three and a half years before. Rachel died in 1956 having suffered stoically from asthma for many years. Two years later he married again and in so doing doubled the size of his family. Joy Buchanan had three daughters with whom she was left when Alistair Buchanan was killed in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1953. Alick Kennedy had three sons. Together they made a large and happy family and added one more, Julia Jane, in 1966.
Alick resigned from the RNVR in 1950 to give more time to the family business. Those who know the west side of Glasgow will remember the tall chimney at Anniesland and its distinctive sign ''Castlebank Dyeworks'' or the green and yellow vans with the slogan ''Mother! Here comes the Castlebank man''.
He was a founder member and chairman of the Dyers and Cleaners Research Organisation, became president of the Federation of Scottish Junior Chambers of Commerce in 1957, and deacon of the Incorporation of Bonnet Makers and Dyers, Glasgow 1960. During his tenure Castlebank amalgamated with Bowie's another family owned business and working with the next generation they helped lay the foundations for Klick Munro, which is now the largest high street photo processor in the UK. He remained with the family business until his retirement in 1982 when he moved to Turnberry in Ayrshire.
He is survived by his second wife Joy, whom he married in January 1958.
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