Kennedy, George Lawrence Napier 1881 - 1954

George Lawrence Napier Kennedy [also known as George Kennedy; George L. Kennedy; and as George Lawrence Kennedy] was born in London, England on 24 April 1881. He was the son of Charles Napier Kennedy (1852-1898) whose occupation was given as Artist Sculptor in the 1891 England and Wales census

He studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London; and at the Académie Julian in Paris. In the 1911 England and Wales Census he gave his occupation as Painter, however, within five years he was practising as an architect. It is not known where and with whom he trained in the profession.

From 1920 to c.1939 he was in partnership with Frederick Bayliss Nightingale (1888-1959) in the London-based architectural firm Kennedy & Nightingale. The firm restored and designed an extension to Holywell Manor in Oxford for Balliol College in 1931-32. They also worked on restoration work at the Gibbs Building, King's College, Cambridge in the 1920s. Kennedy designed Moon Hall, a house in Ewhurst, Surrey in the 1920s, which is discussed at length in Small Houses of To-Day Volume Three by R. Randal Philips (London: Country Life, 1925).

In the late 1930s and early 1940s Kennedy was employed as a classics master at Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland. Whilst teaching at Gordonstoun he designed and built Cumming House, one of the school's buildings, in 1939.

Kennedy exhibited one picture at the Royal Academy in London in 1916 - 'Interior of Loggia, Fremedda Farm, Zennor, looking east'.

In 1913 Kennedy married Mary Rosamond Millie Dow (1892-1987), the daughter of the painter Thomas Millie Dow (1848-1919).

Kennedy was a friend of the artist Henry Lamb (1883-1960) who painted his portrait in 1913 [1]. Kennedy in turn wrote a monograph on Lamb, published by Ernest Benn, London in 1924.

Kennedy's address was given as 38 Avenue Road, Hampstead, London in 1891; Common Lane, Eton, Buckinghamshire in 1901; 8 Primrose Hill Studios, Fitzroy Road, St. Pancras, London in 1911; 31 Oakley Street, Chelsea, London in 1925 and 1930; and 43 Oakley Street, Chelsea, London in 1934 and 1954. He died in at Wesley Vale Road, Devonport, Tasmania, Australia on 22 April 1954.

A biographical file on George L. Kennedy is available on request at the Enquiry Desk, Royal Institute of British Architects Library, London.
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[1] The painting is in the permanent collection of Balliol College, Oxford