Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, David
KENNEDY, DAVID (1825–1886), Scottish singer, born in Perth 15 April 1825, was son of a weaver, who was also precentor of a united secession church there. At sixteen he was apprenticed to a painter; but he was trained by his father in music, and in 1845 became precentor of the South Kirk, Perth. During 1848 he worked at his trade in Edinburgh and London, and returned to Perth to set up in business. Subsequently he obtained a precentorship in Edinburgh, and in 1859 began there a series of weekly concerts. Short concert tours in Scotland followed in 1860 and 1861, and in 1862 he made his first appearance in London, at the Hanover Square Rooms. Between December 1862 and May 1863 he gave a hundred concerts in the Egyptian Hall; and in 1864 and 1865 he was again in London, singing and reading parts of ‘Waverley.’ In 1866–8 he made a professional tour through Canada and the eastern sections of the United States, with his eldest daughter as his accompanist. In 1869 he went to San Francisco, by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The first railway across the continent was opened while Kennedy was at San Francisco, and he sang ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the inaugural ceremony. After spending three years at home, in 1872–6 he made a tour round the world with his family, visiting Australia and New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and Newfoundland. From 1876 to 1879 he was engaged in tours in England, Scotland, and Ireland, including two seasons in London; in 1879 he visited South Africa, and in 1879–80 India. On his way home he spent several months in Italy, where some of his children were studying. In 1881 one of his sons and two of his daughters perished in the burning of a theatre at Nice. In 1881–2 he was again in Canada and the United States, in 1883–4 in Australia and New Zealand. In March 1886 he appeared in London for the last time, and then left for Canada. He died at Stratford, Ontario, 12 Oct. 1886. He was twice married. Kennedy possessed a rich tenor voice and good dramatic powers, along with a fund of humour, sometimes ‘pawky,’ sometimes broad. He was of kindly nature and marked religious feeling. In 1887 a movement was started by the Edinburgh Burns Club to raise funds for a monument to the three Scottish vocalists, Templeton, Wilson, and Kennedy.
[Besides the obituary notices in the Scottish newspapers in October 1886, there is a readable Life of Kennedy, 1887, by his daughter Marjory, with a portrait, and a narrative of his colonial and Indian tours, by David Kennedy, jun.]