Alfred Stephen Kenyon (7 December[1] 1867 – 14 May 1943), generally known as A. S. Kenyon or Stephen Kenyon[2] was an Australian civil engineer and polymath.

History

Kenyon was born in Homebush, Victoria, the only son of Alfred Henderson Kenyon (c. 1837 – 15 September 1921) and his wife Agnes Fleming Kenyon, née Agnew[3] ( – 10 December 1919).[4] Kenyon's father started in Australia as a farmer in the Wimmera district, later a bookseller and dealer in artists' materials,[5][6] chess enthusiast and amateur historian[7]

Kenyon was home-schooled for his early education.[2] Then in 1881 the family moved to Highett Street, Richmond, 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, Cardinia, Tresco, Mystic Park, Merbein, and Nyah. 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[8] until his retirement in 1935, when he made his work as numismatist to the Library a full-time occupation.[9]

He built up an extensive library of books specializing in Australiana which he sold in 1935.[10]

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:

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)[11]
  • Kenyon and Billis contributed more than 200 biographies of pastoral pioneers to The Australasian and The Argus[8]

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, hangs there.[3]

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, New South Wales.[12]
Justine was the author of The Aboriginal Word Book,[13] 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, where he died; his remains were interred in the Heidelberg cemetery.

Further reading

  • Tom Griffiths Hunters and Collectors: The Antiquarian Imagination in Australia pp 70–85 Cambridge University Press
  • Ronald McNicoll (1983) Kenyon, Alfred Stephen (1867–1943) Australian Dictionary of Biography

References

  1. 1 2 "Personal". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 17, 649. Victoria, Australia. 7 December 1933. p. 7. Retrieved 22 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. 1 2 ""That Reminds Me..."". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 28, 906. Victoria, Australia. 15 April 1939. p. 6. Retrieved 22 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. 1 2 Ronald McNicoll (1983). "Kenyon, Alfred Stephen (1867–1943)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  4. ↑ "Family Notices". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 22, 891. Victoria, Australia. 13 December 1919. p. 13. Retrieved 22 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "Personal". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 23, 439. Victoria, Australia. 17 September 1921. p. 24. Retrieved 22 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "German Imprint on Goods". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 12, 463. Victoria, Australia. 8 February 1916. p. 1. Retrieved 22 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "Chinkapook". Quambatook Times. Vol. V, no. 300. Victoria, Australia. 22 November 1916. p. 3. Retrieved 22 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. 1 2 "Billis & Kenyon: Pioneer Pastoral Historians". Port Phillip Pioneers Group. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  9. ↑ "Death of Mr. A. S. Kenyon". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 30, 176. Victoria, Australia. 15 May 1943. p. 4. Retrieved 23 December 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ Stitz, Charles (2010). Australian Book Collectors (First ed.). Bendigo: Bread Street Press. pp. 154–6. ISBN 9780646533407.
  11. ↑ Kenyon, A. S. (Alfred Stephen) (1937), The story of Australia : its discoverers and founders, Geo. A. List for the Corio Press, retrieved 22 February 2019
  12. ↑ "Victorian Master Farmer". The Weekly Times (Melbourne). No. 3762. Victoria, Australia. 4 November 1939. p. 12. Retrieved 22 February 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ Kenyon, Justine (1930). The Aboriginal Word Book.
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