He was born at Summer Hill, near Birmingham, the eldest son of Rann Kennedy (1772-1851), of a branch of the Ayrshire family which had settled in Staffordshire. Rann was a scholar and man of letters, several of whose sons rose to distinction. Benjamin was educated at Birmingham and Shrewsbury schools, and St John's College, Cambridge. After a brilliant university career he was elected fellow and classical lecturer of St John's College in 1828. Two years later he became an assistant master at Harrow, whence he went to Shrewsbury as headmaster in 1836. He retained this post until 1866, the thirty years being marked by a long series of successes for his pupils, chiefly in classics.
When he retired from Shrewsbury a large collection was made, and was used partly on new school buildings and partly on the founding of a Latin professorship at Cambridge. The first holders were both Kennedy's old pupils, HAJ Munro and JEB Mayor. In 1867, Kennedy was elected regius professor of Greek at Cambridge and canon of Ely Cathedral.
From 1870 to 1880 he was a member of the committee for the revision of the New Testament. He supported the admission of women to university, and took a prominent part in the establishment of Newnham and Girton colleges. In politics, he had liberal sympathies. Among a number of classical school-books published by him are two, a Public School Latin Primer and Public School Latin Grammar, which were for long in use in nearly all English schools. He died near Torquay.
His other chief works are: Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus (2nd ed., 1885), Aristophanes, Birds (1874); Aeschylus, Agamemnon (2nd ed., 1882), with introduction, metrical translation and notes; a commentary on Virgil (3rd ed., 1881); and a translation of Plato, Theaetetus (1881). He contributed largely to the collection known as Sabrinae Corolla, and published a collection of verse in Greek, Latin and English under the title of Between Whiles (2nd ed., 1882), with many autobiographical details.
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.