Frederick Charles Kennedy CIE (1849–1916) was a Scottish entrepreneur in the Far East who came to command and direct the largest river fleet of the 19th century.

Life

The grave of Frederick Charles Kennedy, Dean Cemetery

He was born in 1849 the son of Peter Cuming Kennedy, a tweed merchant. He trained as a civil engineer but instead joined the

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

-founded

Irrawaddy Flotilla Company The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company (IFC) was a passenger and cargo ferry company, which operated services on the Irrawaddy River in Burma, now Myanmar. The IFC was Scottish-owned, and was managed by P Henderson & Company from Glasgow. The IFC operated ...

(founded 1852) which traded in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. He sailed out and was in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

by 1877. The company had been "founded" by the British government in 1852 originally in reaction to the

Second Anglo-Burmese War The Second Anglo-Burmese War or the Second Burma War ( my, ဒုတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် မြန်မာ စစ် ; 5 April 185220 January 1853) was the second of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, three wars fought between the Konbaung dy ...

and had been sold off as a private enterprise in 1865. In October 1877 he replaced Archibald Colquhon as Assistant Manager. In the

Third Anglo-Burmese War The Third Anglo-Burmese War ( my, တတိယ အင်္ဂလိပ် – မြန်မာစစ်, Tatiya Anggalip–Mran cac), also known as the Third Burma War, took place during 7–29 November 1885, with sporadic resistance conti ...

of 1885 to 1887, Kennedy was Manager of what was, by then, the largest flotilla of river boats in the world: 35 paddle-steamers, 63 cargo ships and several launches (some of which were armed). He co-operated with the government in the transportation of a large "expeditionary force" into inner Burma. The largest of these ships was the "Thooreah" which held 2100 men. In total the flotilla moved over 9000 British and sepoy soldiers upriver and played a vital role in the war. Other ships in use included the PS Ashley Eden and the PS Palow (armed). The latter was used in the attack on Minhla Forts in November 1885. In 1886, in recognition of his contribution to the war,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

created him a

Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) #Knight Commander ( KCIE) #Companion ( CIE) No appoi ...

(CIE). He appears to be one of the few individuals to have been granted this award without any involvement in the administration or direct history of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

itself. He retired from the IFC in 1903 and was presented with a highly ornate silver tea service. He returned to Edinburgh in 1906 to take on the role of the Director of the London and Edinburgh Shopping Company based at 8 Commercial Street in

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

. He lived at 15 Palmerston Place in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

for the remainder of his life. He died on 17 April 1916 and was buried in

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

in the west of the city. The grave lies in the north Victorian extension, to the south-west, on a wall backing onto the original cemetery. On his death he left £250,000.

Family

In 1881 he was married to Mary Cuddie (d. 1932) in

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

.http://www.kennedydna.com/Scotland_marriages_KENNEDY_v3.xls

References

1849 births 1916 deaths British people of the Third Anglo-Burmese War Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Burials at the Dean Cemetery 19th-century Scottish businesspeople {{Scotland-business-bio-stub