Personalities, Surname K

Keans, Captain Thomas Joseph

He was born with the colours, and, joining the Army, served fourteen and a half years in the ranks before becoming warrant officer. Eight years later he was appointed riding master of the Army Service Corps at Woolwich with an hon. commision, and in 1904 was elected City Marshal (London). He has the medal and clasp for the 1879 Zulu Campaign, the star for the Ashanti Expedition of 1895, and the QSA with six clasps for the Boer War, and has been mentioned in despatches four times. Captain Kearns was one of the founders of the Army Temperance Association, and is Secretary, of the Church of England Soldiers' Institute at Woolwich, and has been actively associated with the Military Tournament at Islington.

Keith-Fraser, Captain Hugh Craufurd

He was born April 3, 1869, and entered the 1st Life Guards in 1890. He served in the Boer War in 1899-1900 as Adjutant in the South African Light Horse, being present at the relief of Ladysmith and the action at Colenso (QSA with two clasps).  He died in June, 1906.

Kelly-Kenny, Lieutenant General Thomas, CB, Commanding Sixth Division. 

Born in 1840. He served in China in 1860, including the action of Sinho, and the capture of Tangku and Taku Forts (despatches, medal, and clasp), and in Abyssinia in 1867 (despatches, medal). During the Boer War he commanded the 6th Division, being present at the relief of Kimberley, the operations in the Orange Free State, the actions at Paardeberg, Poplar Grove, and Driefontein, the operations in the Orange River Colony, and the actions at Ladybrand (despatches, QSA with four clasps, and promoted Lieutenant General) Since that time he has held various district commands in England. He was a member of Prince Arthur of Connaught's suite which left for the East early in 1906 in order to invest the Mikado with the Knighthood of the Garter.

Kemp, G, MP, Yeomanry Cavalry

This patriotic officer, Captain Duke of Lancaster's Own, born in 1866, was the son of Mr G Tawke Kemp.  He married the third daughter of the 3rd Earl of Ellesmere.

Kenna, Captain P Aloysius, VC, 2ist Lancers. 

Entered 1886; Captain, 1895.  Staff service: Assistant Provost Marshal, South Africa, 1899.  War service: Nile Expedition 1898 (Despatches; VC; Egyptian medal with clasp; medal); Boer War, 1899-1900 (Despatches).

Kenney, Lieutenant Colonel A H, CMG, RE

Entered 1873; Lieutenant Colonel, 1900.  War Service: Afghan War, 1878-80 (medal with clasp); Sudan Expedition 1884-85 (Despatches; medal with 2 clasps).

Kerry, (Earl of), H  W  Edmund Petty-Fitzmaurice, Lieutenant Irish Guards

ADC (extra) to Field-Marshal, C-in-Chief the Forces, South Africa, February 1900.

Kidger, Captain William

Son of William Kidger of Tarkastad, Cape Colony. He is a member of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and served in the Boer War with Brabant's Horse, latterly being Intelligence Officer for Tarka, Cape Colony, where his knowledge of the surrounding districts was of great local value.

Kilpin, Ernest Fuller, CMG (1901), JP

Born in Reading, May 5, 1854, being the only son of the Reverend S W Kilpin, who died Aug 6, of the same year. He was educated at private schools in Weymouth and Reading, and entered the Cape Civil Service in London in 1874, being shortly placed in charge of the West of England and South Wales District for the purpose of obtaining and forwarding to the Cape large numbers of the artisans required for the construction of public works. In 1876 he went to Cape Town as Private Secretary, to Sir Charles Mills, then Under Colonial Secretary, and when Sir Gordon Sprigg first took office (Feb 5, 1878) during the Kaffir War, he sent for Mr Kilpin to join him on the frontier as his Private Secretary For some months he resided in King William's Town, and organised and carried on there a Colonial Secretary’s Office in miniature. During the next two years Mr Kilpin accompanied Sir Gordon Sprigg on many tours of inspection through the Colony; attended him during the negotiations in Kimberley in regard to the annexation of Griqualand West to the Cape, and was with him at the great Disarmament Pitso in Basutoland, and at the siege of Morosi's Mountain. In 1886 he was appointed Clerk Assistant of the House of Asscmbly, and was elected Clerk of the House in 1897. When Sir Thomas Scanlen was Prime Minister in 1883 he obtained Mr Kilpin's services as Private Secretary for a visit to Basutoland in the effort to secure a satisfactory settlement of that territory, which at that time was annexed to the Cape. He has been Secretary, of the following Cape Government Commissions: Dorthesia, 1877; War Expenditure, 1881; Liesbeek Municipality, 1883; Diamond Laws, 1887; Liquor Laws, 1889; Lighthouses, 1890; Fisheries, 1892; Scab, 1893; Defence, 1896. He was Secretary, of the Imperial British and German Joint Commission on Angra Pequena and West Coast Claims in 1885, for which inquiry HMS Sylvia was specially detached and fitted up, proceeding up the coast as far as Walfisch Bay. He has been Examiner in Shorthand under the Cape Civil Service Commissioners since that paper was first set in 1889; is proprietor and Editor of the Cape Civil Service List, which he instituted in 1885; author of the Parliamentary Agent's Manual (Cape) 1902, and is a JP for the whole Colony. He married, in 1880, Augusta (Lady of the Royal Red Cross, 1902), daughter of G W Pilkington, of Cape Town.

Kindersley, Archibald Ogilvie Lyttelton

Served under the Imperial Govt, as Lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry (Mil.) in 1887, and was seconded for service under the Colonial Office in the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1893, when he commanded an expedition to Ekat; also took part in the expedition to Okurike (despatches), and the Brass River Expedition in 1895 (despatches, medal, and clasp). He acted as Adjutant of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force in 195, subsequently acting Commandant. In 1896 he retired from the service of the Protectorate. Mr Kindersley also served in Boer War, afterwards being appointed Inspector of Native Affairs for the Germiston District in the Transvaal, which position he now occupies.

Kipling, Rudyard

Of Bateman's, Sussex; The Woolsack, Rosebank, near Cape Town.  He was born at Bombay, Dec 30, 1865, and is son of J Lockwood Kipling, CIE. He was educated at Westward Ho United Service College, and has travelled in China, Japan, Africa, America, and Australia. From 1882-9 he acted as Assistant editor in India of the Civil and Military Gazette and Pioneer. He is the author of numerous publications, including Departmental Ditties, Plain Tales from the Hills, Soldiers Three, In Black and White, The Story oj the Gadsbys, Under the Deodars, Phantom Rickshaw, Wee Willie Winkie, Life's Handicap, The Light that Failed, Barrack Room Ballads, Many Inventions, The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book, The Seven Seas, Captains Courageous, The Day's Work, Stalky and Co, From Sea to Sea, Kim, Just So Stories for Little Children, and Traffics and Discoveries. He married, Jan 17, 1892, Caroline Starr Balestier.

Kirk, Lieutenant J W C

Born in Zanzibar; is son of Sir John Kirk, KCB ; was educated at Marlborough Coll, and King's College, Cambridge Entering the Duke of Cornwall's U he proceeded to SA and served throughout the Boer War; was wounded at Paardeberg (despatches, QSA, four clasps, and KSA). Transferring to the 6th Battalion King' African Rifles he served in the MI in Somaliland (1903). He is the author of a grammar of the Somali Language.

Kirkman, E S, Imperial Light Horse

Click here of his biography and documented record.

Knapp, Major George Harvey, Cape Mounted Rifles

Gazetted Surgeon Lieutenant to the corps in 1897, having previously taken part in the Langberg Campaign as Medical Officer to the Colonial Forces He also served in the Boer War in 1899-1901, including the operations in the Transvaal and Orange River Colony, and the actions at Bethlehem and Wittebergen. On its formation in 1903 he was transferred to the Medical Department of the CMR.

Knox, Lieutenant Colonel E C, 18th Hussars

In ranks three years; Lieutenant, 18th Hussars, 1882; Lieutenant Colonel, 1900.  War service: Sudan Expedition 1884-85 (medal with clasp; bronze star); Boer War, 1899-1900; Ladysmith Relief Force (Despatches).

Kohler, Hon Charles William Henry

Born Oct 14, 1862, at Calvinia, Cape Colony and educated at Mr Close's School and (the Reverend Hole's) Trinity College, Cape Town Mr Kohler was one of the earliest pioneers of Johannesburg; he was Chairman of the Aurora GM Company; Managing Director of the Unified GM Company; Chairman of the Paarl Pretoria Company, and Director of the Langlaagte United Company, 1888-9. He purchased the farm Riverside in the Paarl District in 1890, and has since carried on wine-farming very successfully, being a student of economic questions in other countries, with a very pronounced idea of the line legislation should follow for Cape Colony to keep abreast or ahead of her competitors. Mr Kohler stood for the Legislative Assembly for Stellenbosch in 1895, but retired on nomination day. He was nominated by Stellenbosch. Somerset West, etc., to contest a seat for the Cape Legislative Council, Aug, 1903, and in 1904 was elected in the Progressive interest to the Legislative Council, as member for the W Circle of Cape Colony, defeating his opponent, a labour candidate put forward by the Bond, by 3,600 votes. Mr Kohler has a strong belief in the future of his country, with an equally strong belief in the brilliant destiny of the white races, when fused by the natural healing of time, into one virile nation, for it is his opinion that the present soreness will yield to time. He has himself been a Bondsman, and recognizes the earnestness of purpose of the members of that thorough society, and he is particularly outspoken about the republican tendencies of the extremists, because he holds that straight speaking is the best. In his campaigning tour he encountered many of these extremists, who walked out of the room when the National Anthem was sung, and some of whom made remarks insulting to the King, and rather than ignore these ebullitions he prefers to expose them to the condemnation of public opinion in the belief that it is better to speak openly. He is a Member of the Cape Board of Horticulture, and was a Lieutenant, in the Paarl DMT in 1901.