Death of OAP hero who tried to save Jo Cox
Bernard slips away peacefully at home
THE hero pensioner who suffered serious injury trying to save murdered MP Jo Cox has died, aged 78.
Bernard Kenny was stabbed in the abdomen with a 10in blade as he tackled twisted killer Thomas Mair.
The retired miner, awarded the George Medal for his bravery, never fully recovered from the wounds he suffered on June 16 last year.
His son Phil, a retired Geography teacher who taught Jo, said he was diagnosed with cancer in June and died yesterday with wife Doreen at his side.
He said: “Father David Bulmer administered the Last Rites on Sunday. He went very peacefully and he was not suffering. He wanted to die at home and he did so.”
On Bernard’s act of heroism for Jo, he said it was typical of him. He said: “It was a shock when I got the phone call. We thought at first that he had lost his life. But pretty quickly we found out that he was going to survive. It was very much in keeping with him as a man. We weren’t a bit surprised.” Hate-filled Mair, 54, shot and stabbed Labour MP and mum-of-two Jo in Birstall, West Yorks, a week before the EU referendum, screaming “Britain first”. Bernard saw Mair pounce and ran to help. At Mair’s Old Bailey trial, Bernard said: “I was planning to jump on his shoulders. He had his back to me. I thought he was thumping her until I saw the blood. I saw he had a knife in his hands. “He turned around and saw me. He shoved the knife in and it hit me in the stomach. The blood started pouring out.” Addressing Mair directly in a victim impact statement, he said: “What you did was a pure act of evil. What I did was not enough to save Jo and sometimes I feel I didn’t do enough. But faced with you and that day again I would do the same thing because it is simply the right thing to do.”
Mr Justice Wilkie, who jailed Mair for life, said Bernard deserved “the highest praise and commendation”. But son Phil said he never got the George Cross he was awarded in June.
He said: “We think it has to be presented by a member of the royal family. We expect he will receive it posthumously. And he never spoke about it to the media. He was a private, unassuming family man. Stubborn, kind and fair. An excellent bloke.” Bernard, who was Batley born and bred, was in the Gomersal Mines Rescue Team and worked in the industry 40 years. He was in the crew that tackled the 1973 Lofthouse disaster. Sadly, the lifelong Huddersfield Town fan was too ill to be at the newly-promoted side’s first Premier League match, against Crystal Palace on Saturday. Phil said: “He was unconscious. I read him all the reports, though I don’t know if he could understand. But I like to think he did. It’s nice to think we won 3-0 and he died knowing Town were top of the Premier League briefly.” The funeral will be held at St Patrick’s RC Church in Birstall.