Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, Arthur Edward

938218Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 30 — Kennedy, Arthur Edward1892Thomas Seccombe (1866-1923)

KENNEDY, Sir ARTHUR EDWARD (1810–1883), colonial governor, born on 9 April 1810, was fourth son of Hugh Kennedy of Cultra, co. Down, by Grace Dora, daughter of John Hughes. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, entered the army in 1827 as ensign in the 27th foot, became captain of the 68th regiment in 1840, and retired from the army in 1848. He had previously, in 1846, been appointed poor-law inspector for Ireland, and during the subsequent Irish famine (1847) he served on Sir John Burgoyne's relief committee. He received his first appointment in the colonial service as governor of Gambia in 1851, and in the following year exchanged that post for the governorship of Sierra Leone. He served in the same capacity in Western Australia from 1854 to 1862, when the companionship of the Bath was conferred upon him. Transferred to Vancouver's Island in 1863, and thence to the West African settlements in 1867, he was knighted in 1868, and in 1872 became governor and commander-in-chief of Hong Kong. His tenure of this office determined in 1877, when he was made governor of Queensland. He left Australia for England in 1883, but died during the voyage off Aden, in the Red Sea, 13 June 1883.

Kennedy married in 1839 Georgina Mildred, daughter of Joseph Macartney of St. Helen's, co. Dublin. She died 3 Oct. 1874, leaving one son, Arthur Herbert William, who entered the army, and two daughters.

[Times Register of Events, 1883, Obituary, p. xliii; Men of the Reign, p. 495; Heaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates, p. 105; Foster's Peerage, p. 722; Annual Register, 1883, p. 152.]