Woodibine Wille

Studdert Kennedy is commemorated with a feast day on the liturgical calendars of the Church of England and the Episcopal Church (USA) on 8 March.

Legacy
He wrote the poem Roses in December, which J.M. Barrie quoted in his rectorial address to the University of St. Andrews entitled Courage in 1922, and often misattributed to Barrie.

War! Lies! And a Packet of Fags! is a play by David Gooderson about the Great War and its aftermath—the story of “Woodbine Willie”.

The play is based on extensive research into the life of Studdert Kennedy, including meetings with members of his family, and a detailed study of the background of the period.

He is mentioned in the Divine Comedy song “Absent Friends”: “Woodbine Willie couldn’t rest until he’d/given every bloke a final smoke/before the killing,” and in Finnegans Wake by Irish author James Joyce: “tsingirillies’ zyngarettes, while Woodbine Willie, so popular with the poppyrossies”.

Venerable Archbishop Fulton J.

Sheen quoted Studdert Kennedy’s 1918 poem “Indifference” (from the collection called “Rough Rhymes of a Padre”) when Sheen spoke publicly about the need for enthusiasm in all of one’s life.

Studdert Kennedy “wrote this poem during what was called ‘the great disillusion’ of the 1920’s”.

Sheen’s point was that the “world is suffering from indifference” as “apathy, not caring.”

Sheen noted that he wondered if Jesus Christ “did not suffer more from our indifference than he did from the crucifixion.

To make his point he recited Studdert Kennedy’s poem “Indifference.”