Keith Edward Kissack

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(18 November 1913 – 31 March 2010) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

schoolteacher and historian. He is notable for his many publications on the history of Monmouth and Monmouthshire.

Life

Kissack was born in Clun,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

, to Rev. Bernard Kebble Kissack and Caroline Keith-Murray. His mother was a descendant of the Murray of Blackbarony family of Scotland,

Edmund Murray Dodd Edmund Murray Dodd (January 9, 1797 – July 27, 1876) was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Nova Scotia. He represented the township of Sydney in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1832 to 1848. He was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia ...

, a leading figure in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

in the mid 19th Century, and

David Mathews David Mathews ( – July 28, 1800) was an American lawyer and politician from New York City. He was a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War and was the 43rd and last Colonial Mayor of New York City from 1776 until 1783. As New York Cit ...

, the Mayor of New York City under the British during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

. Kissack attended

Durham School Durham School is an independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition located in Durham, North East England and was an all-boys institution until 1985, when girls were admitted to the sixth form. The school takes pupils ...

where he was a member of the school

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

team in 1931 and 1932. He later attended St Mark and St John's College,

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, where he trained as a teacher. He married Audrey Winifred Jones, of Monmouth in 1939, and daughter Bethia was born in 1940. He achieved the rank of captain in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, serving in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, where he was wounded. After the

, his second daughter Hermione was born in 1946. Kissack taught in Monmouth, becoming headmaster of Priory Street School. He served on Monmouth Town Council, and was a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

who chaired the local bench. He was also Curator of the

Monmouth Museum The Monmouth Museum, alternatively known as The Nelson Museum and Local History Centre, is a museum in Monmouth, Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It features a collection of artifacts associated with Admiral Horatio Nelson. The museum is loca ...

, worked with the

Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers The Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia) is the most senior regiment of the British Army Reserve. The regiment was formed in 1539 during the reign of by King Henry VIII, making it the second oldest regiment of the British Army (The Hono ...

to create their museum at Castle House, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.Keith Kissack, ''Monmouth and its Buildings'', Logaston Press, 2003, , p.viii and cover He was made MBE in 1976.''London Gazette'', Issue 47102, 30 December 1976, p.15
/ref> In the Preface to the third volume of the ''Gwent County History'', published the year before Kissack's death, the General Editor Ralph A. Griffiths described him as "the doyen among historians of Monmouth".

Works

His major publications, excluding journal articles, included: Keith Kissack books at WorldCat
Accessed 24 January 2012 * ''The Trivial Round: Life in Monmouth, 1830-1840'' (1955) * ''The Inns and Friendly Societies of Monmouth'' (with E.T.Davies, 1963, revised 1981) * ''The Formative Years: the rise of Monmouth under its Breton lords, 1075-1257'' (1969) * ''Mediaeval Monmouth'' (1974) * ''Monmouth: the Making of a County Town'' (1975) * ''The River Wye'' (1978) * ''The River Severn'' (1982) * ''Victorian Monmouth'' (1984) * ''Monmouth and its Buildings'' (1991, revised 2003) * ''Haberdashers Monmouth School for Girls'' (1992) * ''Monmouth School and Monmouth, 1614-1995'' (1995) * ''The Lordship, Parish and Borough of Monmouth'' (1996) * ''The Schools in the Priory'' (1999) * ''Home Front Monmouth'' (2000) * ''Monmouth during the First War'' (with Betty Williams, 2001) * ''Monmouth Priory'' (with David Williams et al., 2001)

Notes

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kissack, Keith 1913 births 2010 deaths British people of Canadian descent British people of Dutch descent Members of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London History of Monmouthshire Writers from Shropshire People from Clun People from Monmouth, Wales Schuyler family Schoolteachers from Shropshire