Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Sir William Robert Kennedy (4 March 1838 – 9 October 1916) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer who served as

Commander-in-Chief, The Nore The Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, was an operational commander of the Royal Navy. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Nore Station or Nore Command. The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the Th ...

Biography

Born in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, Italy where his father John Kennedy was the British

chargé d'affaires A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...

, Kennedy joined the

in 1851 and served with the Naval Brigade during the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

.Autobiography of Vice-Admiral Sir William Kennedy
/ref> He was present at the bombardment of Canton in 1856, at the

Battle of Fatshan Creek The Battle of Fatshan Creek (佛山水道之戰) was a naval engagement fought between the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and the Cantonese fleet of Qing China on 1 June 1857. Rear-Admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equ ...

in 1857 and at the attack on the

Peiho Forts The Taku Forts or Dagu Forts, also called the Peiho Forts are forts located by the Hai River (Peiho River) estuary in the Binhai New Area, Tianjin, in northeastern China. They are located southeast of the Tianjin urban center. History The f ...

in 1858 during the

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

. As a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

he next was appointed to the sloop Wasp and on the journey to Cape of Good Hope he jumped overboard to rescue a man that had fallen in; he was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Humane Society. He later sailed on the Narcissus and Victoria, the mediterranean flagship. Promoted to

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

in 1867, he commanded the Vestal on the North American station and then the Reindeer in the Pacific. From 1879 to 1891 he commanded the Druid and was senior officer on the Newfoundland coast. He then commanded a coast-guard ship at Queensferry and then on to the Ruby as senior officer on the south-east coast of South America. In 1889 he was promoted to rear-admiral and from 1892 to 1895 and was commander in-chief in the East Indies. Promoted to vice-admiral in 1896 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Nore in 1900 and was soon promoted to admiral.

Family life

Kennedy married Edith Louisa Stopford in

Daventry Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...

in 1868; they had one daughter Alice Emily Kennedy. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies in 1892 and

in 1900. He was promoted to

16 June 1901 and retired in November 1901. He was also an accomplished author who wrote an extensive autobiography and other books. His brothers included Sir

John Gordon Kennedy Sir John Gordon Kennedy, (18 July 1836 – 2 December 1912) was a British diplomat. Career Kennedy was born in 1836, the son of John Kennedy (d. 1845) and his wife Amelia Maria Briggs (d. 1896). His father had been the British Chargé d'affai ...

KCMG KCMG may refer to * KC Motorgroup, based in Hong Kong, China * Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, British honour * KCMG-LP, radio station in New Mexico, USA * KCMG, callsign 1997-2001 of Los Angeles radio station KKLQ (FM) ...

(1836–1912), who became an eminent diplomat, and Gilbert George Kennedy (1844–1909) who played for the Scottish XI in the second international football match against England.

Honours and awards

*22 June 1897 – To celebrate the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

Vice-Admiral William Robert Kennedy is appointed a Knight Commander of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

. *19 June 1911 – On the occasion of the

Coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a coronation crown, crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the ...

of King George V, Admiral Sir William Robert Kennedy, KCB, is promoted to a

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

Works

*
Sporting Adventures in the Pacific, Whilst in Command of the Reindeer
' (1876) *
Sport, Travel, and Adventure in Newfoundland and the West Indies
' (1885) *
Sporting Sketches in South America
' (1892) *
Hurrah for the Life of a Sailor: Fifty Years in the Royal Navy
' (1900) *
Sport in the Navy and Naval Yarns
' (1902)

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, William 1838 births 1916 deaths Royal Navy admirals Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath British people of Dutch descent

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

Schuyler family