The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Kennedy, Sir Arthur Edward
Kennedy, Sir Arthur Edward, G.C.M.G., C.B., fourth son of Hugh Kennedy, of Cultra, co. Down, by Grace Dorothea, only child of John Hughes, was born in 1809. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and entered the army as ensign in 1827. He became lieutenant in 1832, and captain in the 68th Light Infantry in 1840, retiring from the army in 1848. In 1846 he became County Inspector of the Board of Works, and served under Sir John Burgoyne in the Irish famine as Relief Inspector, and subsequently as Poor Law Inspector, until the office was abolished in 1851. In 1852 he was appointed Governor of the Gambia, and transferred in the same year to Sierra Leone, serving as Consul-General in the Sherboro' country in 1854. He was Governor of Western Australia from June 1855 to Feb. 1862, and in the next year became Governor of Vancouver's Island, and of the West African Settlements in Nov. 1867, in which year he was knighted. Concurrently he acted at Sierra Leone as Judge in the Courts of Mixed Commission, with special instructions and powers for the abolition of the slave trade. His next governorship was at Hong Kong in 1872, where he continued to act until 1877, when he was appointed Governor of Queensland, assuming office in April. Sir Arthur, who was created C.B. in 1862 and G.C.M.G. in 1871, resigned the Governorship of Queensland in 1883, and died at Aden on his passage home to England on June 3rd, 1883. In 1839 he married Georgina, daughter of J. Macartney.