Russian Civil War Second World War Edward Coverley Kennedy (31 August 1879 – 23 November 1939) was a Royal Navy officer who is remembered as the captain of the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi who engaged the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

[1] Edward Coverley Kennedy was born 31 August 1879, only son (there were two daughters) of Edward Briggs Kennedy (1842-1914), of Deanyers, Hall Lane, Upper Farringdon, near Alton, Hampshire, and Caroline Edith (died 1935), daughter of Colville Coverley Jackson (1804-1858), a magistrate and collector in the Bengal Civil Service, sometime of Agra,[2] and granddaughter of Sir John Jackson, 1st Baronet, a politician and director of the East India Company.

He returned to England, and wrote four books about his Australian life and the police force, the first, Four Years in Queensland, published in 1870.

In this period he saw service in the battleship HMS Collingwood, at the Royal Naval College, Osborne and in the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station.

Antrim was the flagship of Rear Admiral William Pakenham, commander of the Third Cruiser Squadron.

This remained the case until May 1918 when he was made captain of HMS Angora, a minelayer converted from a merchant ship.

[12] In the period 1919–1920 he returned to the America and West Indies Station to command the light cruiser Constance.

[11] Tuesday 22 July 1919 saw veterans from the British Honduras Contingant, recently returned from service in the Middle East, march through the Belize Town.

They smashed the plate glass of the ten largest merchant stores before cutting the power to the town.

[15] On Friday 25 July, Claude Smith had called a public meeting to discuss labour demands.

The meeting was broken up when local police and Royal Marines from Constance arrived to arrest him.

[1] Despite being hopelessly outgunned, Captain Kennedy decided to fight, rather than surrender as demanded by the Germans.

Around 30 survivors were reported as being taken prisoner but 11 men were rescued by the armed merchant cruiser HMS Chitral.