Thomas Stuart Kennedy, Esq.
(1841-1894)
9 April 1863

Volume 10, page 152, sitting number 12,975. 

Born on 26 April 1841, Thomas Stuart Kennedy was the son of Peter Kennedy and his wife Ann. He was baptised at Horwich in Lancashire on 18 July 1841. His father was original from Glasgow but established a successful textile business at Feldkirch in Austria and for many years lived at Zurich in Switzerland.  

‘After studying at Geneva and at Hanover, [Thomas] served an apprenticeship at the Wellington Foundry, Leeds, becoming in 1863 a partner in the firm, which was then known under the style of Fairbairn, Kennedy and Naylor. For twenty years Mr Kennedy had charge of the department devoted to the construction of engineering tools generally and of travelling-cranes’ (Institution of Civil Engineers: Obituaries, 1894).

On 1 June 1865 in Canterbury Cathedral he married Clara Thornton, second daughter of the late H.G. Thornton of Sturry, near Canterbury.

‘Mr Kennedy retired from the firm at the end of 1882, still keeping in touch, however, with the engineering world through the various experiments he carried out in a small private workshop, in which he worked constantly when not abroad. He was a keen sportsman and enjoyed out-door exercise of all kinds. As a young man he was the first to ascend, in 1862, in company with Mr Wigram and two guides, the Dent Blanche, one of the most difficult Alpine peaks. He also made an attempt to ascend the Matterhorn in the winter of 1862, in the idea that it might prove less impracticable in January than in summer. He was a member of the Alpine and Hurlingham Clubs and of the Bramham Moor and the York and Ainsty Hunts’ (Ibid).

Having for some time suffered from heart disease, Thomas Stuart Kennedy died, aged 53, on 17 November 1894 at Park Hill, Wetherby, Yorkshire. He left an estate valued at £80,578.

‘Mr Kennedy was perhaps best known as a sportsman. Spending his youthful days in Switzerland, he seems to have acquired a love for mountaineering. […] Mr Kennedy was a member of the Alpine Club. As a polo player he was also well known, and was a prominent member of the Hurlingham Club. Hunting, too, was a pastime of which he was passionately fond. […] Mr Kennedy, who was about 53 years of age, made considerable alterations at Park Hill (going thither from Meanwood about eight years ago) to accommodate his stud of horses, which, however, he was obliged to sell off, on account of ill-health, eighteen months ago. Since that time he has spent his hours when not abroad working in his mechanic’s shop. He was a J.P. and frequently sat on the Wetherby Bench. He leaves a widow, but no family. He was of an unassuming disposition, and was much respected’ (Leeds Mercury, 19 November 1894).