Wilfred Byng Kenrick

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Alderman Wilfred Byng Kenrick
Born (1872-12-04)4 December 1872
Birmingham, England
Died 7 August 1962(1962-08-07) (aged 89)
Birmingham
Nationality English
Education
Occupation
  • Industrialist
  • Politician
  • Educationalist
Known for Lord Mayor of Birmingham
Parents William Kenrick

Alderman Wilfred Byng Kenrick (4 December 1872 – 7 August 1962) was an English industrialist, politician and educationalist, who served as Lord Mayor of Birmingham.

Family

Kenrick was born on 4 December 1872.[1] He was the son of another Birmingham civic leader, William Kenrick and, through his mother Mary Chamberlain, was a nephew of a third, her younger brother Joseph Chamberlain, as well as being a cousin to Austen Chamberlain and Neville Chamberlain.

He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College, Oxford.[1]

Kenrick married another cousin, Norah Beale, on 24 July 1906. She was the daughter of Alderman Charles Gabriel Beale.[1] The couple had four children,[1] first a daughter, Norah Penelope (1907–1932), and then sons, including William Edmund (1908–1981).[2] In 1908, the family were resident at Metchley House,[3] in Edgbaston.[4] One of Wilfred's sisters, Cicely (1869–1950), married Ernest Debenham, head of the retail chain Debenhams, in 1892. Wilfred had another sister, Millicent Mary Kenrick (1871–1932) and a younger brother, Gerald William Kenrick (1876–1953).

Byng Kenrick was involved in managing the family firm, Archibald Kenrick & Sons Ltd, whose origins date back to 1791, from whose day-to-day activities he stood down in 1945, retiring fully in 1953.[2]

Civic service

Kenrick was first elected to Birmingham City Council in 1914.[1] For many years, he led the council's Unionist group.[1] He served as chair of Birmingham's Education Committee from 1922–1928, and was Lord Mayor for the year 1928–1929 (his father had been Mayor in 1877, before Birmingham became a city; his father-in-law was Lord Mayor from 1897-1899 and again in 1905), before returning to the Education Committee from 1931–1943, and was a governor and deputy pro-chancellor of the University of Birmingham from 1939–1957.[5] He was, like his father before him, a governor of King Edward's School there from 1916 until his death.[5]

Kenrick was granted – like his father and father-in-law[1] before him – Honorary Freedom of the City of Birmingham on 11 July 1938.[6] He was awarded the Birmingham Civic Society gold medal in 1948 and an honorary Doctor of law degree (LL.D.) by the University of Birmingham in 1959.[1] He was elected an Alderman of Birmingham.[5]

Art collection

The Feast of Peleus by Edward Burne-Jones, donated by Byng Kenrick to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Kenrick owned significant artworks, some inherited from his father. In 1956, he presented the Edward Burne-Jones painting The Feast of Peleus to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, in memory of his father.[7] John Everett Millais' The Ransom, which was part of the inheritance, was sold after Byng's death, and having been resold, is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum.[8]

The Lantern Maker's Courtship, A Street Scene in Cairo by William Holman Hunt was donated by his family, to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1962,[9] as was Head of a Boy by Joseph Southall in 1964.[10]

Legacy

Kenrick died on 7 August 1962.[1]

The former Byng Kenrick Grammar School For Girls (now part of The International School) was named in his honour.[5] A bronze bust[11] by William Bloye was commissioned anonymously in his honour in 1960[5] and displayed at the school, from where it was eventually stolen; it has never been recovered.[12] He is commemorated by a blue plaque[13][14] at Grove Park, on Mill Farm Road, Harborne in Birmingham, outside a care home named The Kenrick Centre, in honour of his wider family.[15]

A pair of flannel tennis trousers believed to have belonged to him is in the collection of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.[16]

The silver and enamel casket made by Muriel Meats to house Kenrick's Freedom of the City document was rediscovered in a storeroom at Aston University in 2001.[17] It was subsequently placed in the care of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.[18]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "Mr. W. Byng Kenrick Services To Education In Birmingham". The Times. 1962-08-08. pp. 10, Issue 55464; col E. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Kenrick, William Edmund (1908–1981)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48731. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  3. ↑ 52°27′19″N 1°56′48″W / 52.45537°N 1.94667°W / 52.45537; -1.94667 (Metchley House)
  4. ↑ "Re Thomas William Ryland, Deceased". London Gazette. 1908-08-25. p. 6262. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Wilfred Byng Kenrick". National Recording Project. Public Monuments and Sculpture Association. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  6. ↑ Birmingham Post and Mail Yearbook and Who's Who, 1998. Kinslea Press. 1998. ISBN 1-900753-05-7. 
  7. ↑ "The Feast of Peleus". Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  8. ↑ "The Ransom - Provenance Research". J. Paul Getty Trust. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  9. ↑ "Oil Painting - The Lantern Maker's Courtship, A Street Scene in Cairo". Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  10. ↑ "Head of a Boy". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  11. ↑ PMSA reference: WMbiBIxx041
  12. ↑ Noszlopy, George T. (1998). Public Sculpture of Birmingham including Sutton Coldfield. Public Sculpture of Britain 2. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-682-8. 
  13. ↑ Plaque #1578 on Open Plaques.
  14. ↑ 52°26′58″N 1°57′18″W / 52.44947°N 1.95504°W / 52.44947; -1.95504 (Wilfred Byng Kenrick blue plaque)
  15. ↑ "The Kenrick Centre". Birmingham City Council. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  16. ↑ "Men's Tennis Trousers". Connecting Histories. Retrieved 27 October 2013. 
  17. ↑ Collins, Tony (2001-11-15). "A rare civic gift is found; Casket hidden under boxes". Birmingham Evening Mail.   – via HighBeam (subscription required)
  18. ↑ "Rare find bound for museum". Birmingham Evening Mail. 2002-05-10.   – via HighBeam (subscription required)
  • W. Byng Kenrick, ed. (1932). Chronicles of a nonconformist family. 
  • Alderman Byng Kenrick. Tributes and appreciations on his retirement as chairman of the Birmingham Education Committee expressed at meetings held on the twenty-ninth day of October & the eighth day of December MCMXLIII. 1943. 
  • Church, R. A. (1969). Kenricks in hardware: a family business, 1791–1966. 

External links

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