Captain Arthur Edward Kennedy is a figure whose biography connects to both the devastation of the Irish Famine and the early development of the Swan River Colony, through his respective roles as an inspector of the Poor Law Union in Kilrush, County Clare and later as Governor of Western Australia from 1855 to 1862. The former role saw him oversee the provision of aid to thousands of starving people and the maintenance of the workhouse in Kilrush; later, his reports on conditions there helped to prompt an investigation into the running of the Poor Law Union, earning him the ire of local landlords – whose cruelty and enthusiasm for evictions were well highlighted.
Early years in County Down
Arthur Edward Kennedy was born at his family’s estate of Cultra (County Down) on 9 April 1810 to Hugh Kennedy and Grace Dorothea, nee Hughes. His family had lived in this area since the 17th century, beginning with his ancestor Dr Hugh Kennedy (c.1628-c.1685), who had been a respected medical practitioner in Belfast during that period, and whose son, John, purchased the Cultra estate in 1671. His mother – Hugh’s first wife – was from a family in Tipperary, and his father was a JP and High Sheriff of Co. Down.
After completing studies at Dublin’s Trinity College, Arthur became gazetted an ensign in the 27th Foot 11th Regiment – on August 15th, 1827. During his military career, he was posted to Corfu, then Canada – where he spent 3 years as a captain in the 68th Regiment – before returning to Ireland in 1846, where he took up a position with the Poor Law Commission, specifically in County Clare.
‘A tangled mass of poverty, filth and disease’
In October 1847, Captain Kennedy was appointed inspector for the Poor Law Union in Kilrush, and arrived there the following month. Appalled by the poverty and desperation he witnessed there, he stated that the “whole district seemed swept of food and he believed a third of the population would be without food at Christmas, two-thirds starving before February and by May 1848, there would be a total starvation”. Noting an initial lack of segregation between regular inmates and those suffering from fever in the Poorhouse, he instituted measures to limit the spread of disease, and added several more buildings, which became auxiliary workhouses and hospitals, increasing the overall capacity from 1000 to 5000.
Although his administration took a long time to endorse outdoor relief – with the Kilrush being the last in Clare to do so, in February 1848 – his time in the area enabled Captain Kennedy to develop a great deal of sympathy for the poor, and a contrasting strong dislike for their landlords, noting how many of them – together with their agents – were willing to destroy the homes of the sick and starving, dumping them instead in the Poorhouse. In his later reminisces, he said that he often ‘felt disposed to take the gun from behind my door and shoot the first landlord I met’.
After the arrival of cholera in the area in March 1849, Kennedy and his wife visited homes of the sick, and organised industries and relief schemes targeting the most vulnerable; these charitable acts were also undertaken by his 7-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who was depicted in the Illustrated London News (22 December 1849) distributing clothing to the poor of Kilrush; alongside this, his efforts in outdoor relief ended up providing food for 10,000 or more people.
Reports on the Famine in Kilrush
However, he also drew the ire of local landlords, particularly following an investigation in May 1850 into the administration of Kilrush’s Poor Law Union, which had been prompted by the Captain’s reports (throughout 1848 and 1849) to poor law commissioners in Dublin.
In July 1850, Kennedy gave evidence in London to the investigating parliamentary committee organised by radical independent MP and economist George Poulett Scrope; his testimony of extensive evictions and the deaths of thousands of people was upheld by evidence, despite contrary statements by Colonel Crofton Moore Vandeleur – the district’s largest resident landlord – and land agent Marcus Keane.
But this testimony guaranteed not only embarrassment for the poor law commissioners and their backers, but the end of Kennedy’s appointment, and in September 1850, he was moved on to Kilkenny, where he became assistant commissioner of two unions. He later became involved in an attempted duel and, thereafter legal action by Vandeleur, after mistakenly believing the latter had maligned his character, but this was resolved in August 1851, when a jury acquitted Kennedy of any wrongdoing.
Colonial appointments
In the following years, Captain Kennedy was appointed Governor of various colonies, including Gambia (1852), Sierra Leone (1852-1854), Western Australia (1854-1862) – where he propelled initiatives in road clearing, swamp drainage and the building of Government House – Vancouver Island (1863-1866), the West African Settlements (1867-1871), Hong Kong (1872-1877) and Queensland (1877-1883). He died on 3 June 1883 while on board a ship to England, and was buried at sea off the coast of Aden.
For his achievements in these positions, Arthur Edward Kennedy was awarded CB (1862), KCB (1867), KCMG (1871) and GCMG (1881). Upon his death, he left behind a son, Arthur Herbert William, who served in the army, and two daughters, Georgina Mildred (for whom the Georgina river in Queensland was named), and Elizabeth Henrietta (d. 1925), who married the naval officer Richard Meade (1832–1907), 4th Earl Clanwilliam. His wife – Georgina Mildred Macartney, of Dublin – had died in 1874.
He never forgot his time in Kilrush – for example, sending money to the poor of that town from Western Australia in 1858 – and is commemorated by the plaque on the site of the Old Workhouse in St. Patrick’s Terrace, this being a joint venture by Kilrush U.D.C. and the Irish Community of Perth, Western Australia. His home estate at Cultra in County Down is today the home of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.
Written with reference to an article by George Harratt of the Clare County Library, the Dictionary of Irish Biography, Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland (blog, Timothy Belmont, 2025), Other Clare Vol. 3 Capt. A.E. Kennedy, Poor Law Inspector and Great Famine in Kilrush Union 1847-1850 by Fr. Ignatius Murphy, Australia Dictionary of Biography Vol. 5 by Peter Boyce (Source Pro. Jean Harrison), Limerick Chronicle 15/11/1854 (Source James A. McMahon), Royal Western Australia Historical Society (Inc.) Mrs. J.A. Campbell.
From the early 19th century, a lack of economic opportunities drove many Irish to leave the country, especially when Canada began to offer cheap fares based on its booming timber industry, which was already making regular transatlantic journeys to sell its products to Europe. The arrival of the Famine in the mid-1840s made emigration an increasingly attractive option, and people often relied on support from family and friends overseas to secure a fare. But there was also a ‘push’ effect, as landowners and local officials saw an opportunity to reduce the number of people on their land, or those looking for a place in the workhouses. In the case of the former, landlords often chartered ships to enable tenants to leave, and sometimes paid them to do so. And when it came to workhouses, often part of the funding they received via the local ‘Poor Rate’ was put towards helping people to leave. Many people actually tried to enter their local workhouses hoping they would be selected to emigrate, but in 1849, this was restricted to those who had been resident for at least two years.
Following the introduction of male convicts to the Swan River Colony in 1850, the disparity between men and women in the colony became a serious issue, driving demand for women emigrants. Initially, young women in England were targeted, but many were uninterested in travelling to such a far-flung and isolated location. But British Emigration Commissioners found much more fertile ground in the workhouses of Ireland, asking Guardians of the latter to select girls for emigration to the colony.