Benjamin Hall Kennedy

KENNEDY, Benjamin Hall. b. Summer Hill, Tipton, near Birmingham, 6 November 1804; d. Torquay, Devon, 6 April 1889. He was educated at King Edward’s School, Birmingham (1814-18) and then at Shrewsbury School (1819-23), followed by St John’s College, Cambridge (BA 1827). At Cambridge he was an outstanding figure, winning many of the University Prizes, becoming President of the Union, and being a member of the ‘Apostles’ (the intellectual society that included such figures as Arthur Hallam and Alfred Tennyson* among its members). Kennedy returned to Shrewsbury briefly as an assistant master, before becoming a Fellow of his old college in 1828. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1829, priest 1830). He...