Ernest Laurence Kennaway, 1881-1958

Abstract

The Personal Record which the subject of this memoir deposited with the Royal Society consisted of little more than a brief statement of his qualifications, appointments, and distinctions, and an incomplete list of publications, such as might have been submitted as part of an application for a post. This is characteristic of the self-effacement which marked the whole career of a very remarkable man. Few knew him well; those who did felt a great affection for him. For some brief information about his childhood and youth I am indebted to his sister, Mrs Ethel Kay, and his fellow-undergraduate, Dr H. C. Squires. His major scientific contributions have had a decisive and far-reaching influence on the history of cancer research. During much of his life he was handicapped by ill-health. In fact, nearly 30 years ago, his then chief had already written him off, and was casting around for a possible successor, at a time when Kennaway’s most important work was only beginning. Few can have achieved so much under such adverse conditions. Kennaway was born in Exeter on 23 May 1881, the son of Laurence James Kennaway. His grandfather, William Kennaway, who was twice Mayor of Exeter, played a leading part in combating the cholera epidemic in that city in 1832. William Kennaway sent all his four sons and two of his five daughters to New Zealand, beginning in 1851. In 1869 the two sisters sailed for home in a ship which met with an unknown fate; the youngest son, Charles, was washed overboard and drowned in a voyage from New Zealand in 1872; some details of this voyage are given by Sir Ernest in a short article published in St Bartholomew's Hospital Journal in 1947.