Alfred Stephen Kenyon (7 December 1867 – 14 May 1943), generally known as A. S. Kenyon or Stephen Kenyon was an Australian civil engineer and

polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

History

Kenyon was born in

Homebush, Victoria Homebush is a locality from Avoca in central Victoria, Australia. It is located within the Pyrenees Shire. History 1850 - 1880 First settled in 1853 after a rush to a rich claim nearby, the town reached the height of its prosperity in the 18 ...

, the only son of Alfred Henderson Kenyon (c. 1837 – 15 September 1921) and his wife Agnes Fleming Kenyon, née Agnew ( – 10 December 1919). Kenyon's father started in Australia as a farmer in the

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Austral ...

district, later a bookseller and dealer in artists' materials, chess enthusiast and amateur historian Kenyon was home-schooled for his early education. Then in 1881 the family moved to Highett Street,

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, and he enrolled at nearby St Stephen's Grammar School, and in 1884 he entered Ormond College, Melbourne University, to study civil engineering. He joined the Victorian Public Works Department in 1887, and the following year was appointed to the Victorian Water Supply Department, where he was responsible for water supply works in the northern Mallee regions. Later he was engineer-in-charge in the opening up of the Middle Mallee, organising the water supply for North Mallee, and, later The Great War, of clearing the Red Cliffs irrigation area for repatriation of returned soldiers. He also supervised the construction of other works, including the Goulburn levees and works at

Koo-Wee-Rup Koo Wee Rup is a town and satellite suburb in Victoria, Australia, 63 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Shire of Cardinia local government area. Built on former marshland now converted to market gar ...

, Cardinia,

Tresco Tresco may refer to: * Tresco, Elizabeth Bay, a historic residence in New South Wales, Australia * Tresco, Isles of Scilly, an island off Cornwall, England, United Kingdom * Tresco, Victoria, a town in Victoria, Australia * a nickname referring to ...

, Mystic Park, Merbein, and

Nyah Nyah is a town in northern Victoria, Australia. The town is located on the Murray Valley Highway, in the Rural City of Swan Hill local government area, north west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Nyah had a population of 530. The t ...

. In 1932 Kenyon was appointed a commissioner of the Victorian Water Supply Commission. He acted as part-time curator of the Coin Room in the

Melbourne Public Library State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the ...

until his retirement in 1935, when he made his work as numismatist to the Library a full-time occupation. He built up an extensive library of books specializing in Australiana which he sold in 1935.

Other interests

Based on his work in country regions of Victoria, Kenyon knew much of the post-settlement history of rural Victoria. Institutions of which he was a member include: * Institution of Engineers Australia *

Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) provides services to professionals engaged in all facets of the global minerals sector and is based in Carlton, Victoria, Australia. History The Institute had its genesis in 1893 with ...

of which he was treasurer 1897, secretary 1906, and president in 1928 *

Historical Society of Victoria The Royal Historical Society of Victoria is a community organisation promoting the history of the state of Victoria, Australia. It functions to promote and research the history of that state after settlement, and as an umbrella organisation for ...

, and served as president *

Field Naturalists Club of Victoria The Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV) is an Australian natural history and conservation organisation. It was founded in May 1880 by a group of nature enthusiasts that included Thomas Pennington Lucas. Sophie C. Ducker,Lucas, Arthur Henr ...

and served as vice-president * Royal Society of Victoria *

Anthropological Society of Victoria The Anthropological Society of Victoria was formed in 1934, in response to the efforts of gifted lecturer Frederic Wood Jones who attracted an enthusiastic non-academic audience to his public lectures in the 1930s. In 1976 it amalgamated with the ...

* Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science * Society of Genealogists, Australia. * Victorian Numismatic Society

Publications

*A. S. Kenyon ''The Overlanders'' *A. S. Kenyon ''The Story of the Mallee'' (1916) *A. S. Kenyon and Charles Barrett ''Blackfellows of Australia'' (1930s) *A. S. Kenyon and Charles Barrett ''Australian Aboriginal Art'' (1947) *A. S. Kenyon ''Stuart Murray on Irrigation in Victoria'' (1925) *A. S. Kenyon and R. V. Billis ''Pastures New'' *A. S. Kenyon and R. V. Billis ''The First Century'' *A. S. Kenyon and R. V. Billis ''The Pastoral Pioneers of Port Phillip and Victoria'' *A. S. Kenyon ''The story of Australia : its discoverers and founders'' (1937) *Kenyon and Billis contributed more than 200 biographies of pastoral pioneers to '' The Australasian'' and '' The Argus''

Recognition

The A. S. Kenyon Library, Red Cliffs, was named for him. A portrait of him by Graham Thorley, short-listed for the 1940

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

, hangs there.

Family

Kenyon married Alexandrine Amelie Leontine Delepine ( – 20 August 1940) on 2 April 1895; they had one daughter: *Justine Agnes Delepine "Jim" Kenyon (16 September 1897 – 3 October 1988) married Otto Colerio Tyrer in August 1938, and ran an acclaimed farm "The Retreat",

Merriwagga Merriwagga is a town in the northern part of the Riverina region of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is situated by road, about north west of Goolgowi and south of Hillston on the Kidman Way in NSW ) , nickname = , image_map ...

, New South Wales. :Justine was the author of ''The Aboriginal Word Book'', a popular source of house names in the first half of the twentieth century, when that practice was fashionable. They had a home at Lower Plenty Road,

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

, where he died; his remains were interred in the Heidelberg cemetery.

References