Edmund kennedy explorer biography

EdmundBesley CourtKennedyJP

Son of Thomas Kennedy and Mary Ann (Smith) Kennedy

Brother of Joanna (Kennedy) Parke

[children unknown]

Profile last modified | Created 20 Feb 2019

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Biography

Edmund Besley Court Kennedy (1818-1848), explorer, was born on the 5th of September 1818, on Guernsey, Channel Islands, the sixth of eight children of Colonel Thomas Kennedy and his wife Mary Ann, daughter of Thomas Smith, Lord Mayor of London in 1809. All his brothers later distinguished themselves in either the Church of England - Reverend John Doyle Kennedy (1814-1897) - or the public service, and a strong parental influence in both these directions is obvious.

Edmund was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and trained as a Surveyor. According to a quote from his father in Edgar Beale's article he had an "almost mad ambition to distinguish himself". A later comment by Robert Logan Jack, who was to follow in Kennedy's 'footsteps' on part of the latter's third expedition in Australia - "the inability to bow before the forces of Nature and admit defeat, were closely allied to the piety which distinguished him above other explorers" (pg. 252) ... "Kennedy had the spirit which drew from Job (13:15) in his agony the defiant cry: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him, but I will maintain mine own ways" (p.253)^[1].

By which ship, Edmund Kennedy arrived in Sydney, in 1840 does not seem to be known, but he joined the Surveyor-General's Department there on the 7th of August 1840, then being first sent under Charles Tyers, 12 years his senior but only joining the Department one year earlier in 1839, to carry out general survey work at the new settlement of Portland Bay in Victoria. After having a daughter, named Eliza,^[2] with Margaret Murphy, he returned to Sydney on the 12th of June 1843, where there was little to do for a couple of years, partly because of a large reduction in the Department's budget.

Fortunately, in November 1845 he was appointed 2nd in command of an expedition to find a way to Port Essington on the Gulf of Carpentaria led by Sir Thomas Mitchell, with Kennedy's role to maintain a base camp for over four months, on the Maranoa River, in what is now southwest Queensland. Sir Thomas Mitchell only got as far as the Barcoo River that he named 'Victoria' before he ran short of supplies.^[3] Mitchell got back to Sydney on the 29th of December 1846, Kennedy in January 1847. Mitchell was convinced that his Victoria River flowed into the Gulf, so Kennedy offered to go and test Mitchell's theory.

On the 13th of March 1847, Kennedy left Sydney with a small party of eight men and an Aboriginal boy, using pack-horses and three spring carts, and retracing Mitchell's route to the furthest point northwards on the 'Victoria River'. It didn't take him long to establish that it was really part of the Cooper River system, so Kennedy renamed it the 'Barcoo', and returned to Sydney on the 7th of February 1848. The routes of these two expeditions, as well as his third, up the east coast to Cape York, are shown on a map of Australia^[4]. Could this be the same Aboriginal person who went with him on his third expedition - Galmahra Galmarra, who elsewhere^[5] is referred to as a 'young man', which seems more likely.

Robert Logan Jack LL.D., F.R.G.S., F.G.S., M.INST.M.M. devoted seven chapters of his book to 'The Kennedy expedition, 1848', of which the highlights are the beginning and the end and all contained within the period, which began with the planning and setting sail "in the "Tam O'Shanter" barque, on the 29th of April 1848, convoyed by H.M.S. "Rattlesnake"^[6], and ended tragically with his death at Escape River on the 5th of December 1848.^[7][8]

The book is readily available online in the Gutenberg version and no attempt is made here to summarise Kennedy's story, other than to say, as Jack has that the loss of the lives of the majority (10) of the expedition members was basically a result of Kennedy's ambitious drive, stubborn refusal to admit his planning mistakes, and quickly move on. He spent three months going almost nowhere after they disembarked trying to make use of his carts, which had served him well on his previous two inland expeditions but were not suitable for the coastal swamps and ranges, and should have been abandoned. That was three months using up their precious and limited food resources, and caused them to miss the planned supply ship up the coast from Rockingham Bay where they had disembarked.

Kennedy was indeed a kind, devout, religious man, holding a service every Sunday, much loved by Galmahra Galmarra, who grieved greatly at his death, and buried him near where he died, but his conditioning was such that he had to do things his way.

In 1852 a beautiful marble memorial to Kennedy, made in England, was erected in St James' Church, Sydney. It depicts Kennedy dying in Jackey Jackey's arms and gives his death date as the 13th of December 1848.^[9] Jack (1921, p.231) worked out the death date as the 5th of December. The memorial also lists those who died, those who survived, and with a special tribute to Jackey Jackey.

Kennedy has been further honoured by the naming of geographical locations - "The former Electoral district of Kennedy in the Queensland Legislative Assembly and the Division of Kennedy in the Parliament of Australia are named after Kennedy." "Edmund Kennedy National Park – established 1977". "Kennedy Highway", and the small town of Kennedy, at Rockingham Bay.

In the centenary year of 1948, monuments and bronze plaques were erected in his name in several towns and places in Queensland (op.cit.). So his drive and ambition did not go unrewarded.

The State Library of New South Wales hold two boxes of photocopies of Edmund Besley Court Kennedy's papers from 1838 to 1848; including correspondence, papers relating to exploring expeditions from 1845 to 1848, notebook from 1838 to 1842, a diary of part of the expedition with Sir Thomas Mitchell, newscuttings from 1847 to ca.1848, and miscellaneous material from ca.1844 to ca.1848; as well as letters received from him to other members of his family^[10].

Sources

1. ↑link
2. ↑ "Australia Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XTHK-P7F : 28 January 2020), Edmund Kennedy in entry for Eliza Clara Kennedy, 1844.
3. ↑Livingstone, ADB
4. ↑Map
5. ↑Jacky Jacky, wikipedia
6. ↑link2
7. ↑link3
8. ↑ "BillionGraves Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPSD-6GL7 : 26 June 2018), Edmund Besley Court Kennedy, died Dec 1848; citing BillionGraves (http://www.billiongraves.com : 2012), Burial at Somerset, Somerset, Northern Peninsula Area Regional, Queensland, Australia.
9. ↑article
10. ↑archive

See Also:

• Glenville Pike, The Kennedy Expedition. 1954. 2021. Core.Ac.Uk.
• "Biography - Edmund Besley Kennedy - Australian Dictionary Of Biography". 2021. Adb.Anu.Edu.Au. Edmund Kennedy, ADB
• Edgar Beale, 'Kennedy, Edmund Besley (1818–1848)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, Edmund Kennedy published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 10 March 2019.
• Design, UBC. 2021. "Edmund Kennedy Expedition | Monument Australia". Monumentaustralia.Org.Au. Kennedy Expedition
• Wikidata: Item Q325779, en:Wikipedia
• Robert Logan Jack, 1921, 'Northmost Australia: Three centuries of exploration, discovery, and adventure in and around the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland'. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., London.

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