Researching Charles Kennedy

He was born into a large family, the youngest of five sons; he was the son of George Kennedy, an architect, and grandson of the painter Charles Napier Kennedy. A gifted child, he was educated at Gordonstoun, and entered Balliol College, Oxford at the age of seventeen. His tutor there was Thomas Balogh. Within two years he had graduated with first-class honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and was immediately recruited into Lord Cherwell's statistical research group for the duration of World War II.

After the War he re-entered academia, lecturing in Economics for a year at Imperial College London and another at Balliol. In 1948 he was elected Fellow of Economics at The Queen's College, Oxford, and in 1950 gained a University lectureship. In 1955, he travelled to the West Indies, where he spent a large amount of time painting; six years later, fond memories persuaded him to leave Oxford and take up a Chair in Economics at the University of the West Indies in 1961, shortly after being married.

During his time in the West Indies, he wrote prolifically - at least by his standards - and briefly served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the university, as well as being a Director of the Bank of Jamaica. Due to political events, however, he decided to return to the UK, and took the Chair of Economic Theory at the University of Kent in Canterbury in 1966. He formally retired four years later, at the young age of 48, but continued teaching part-time (as the Honorary Professor of Economic Theory) until 1984. For his services to the University, he was awarded an honorary DLitt in 1984.

Kennedy was mildly eccentric; he had a phobia of libraries, and would not enter one unless accompanied, even then being distinctly uncomfortable. He was not a prolific writer - he only published around fifty papers - but his writing was of a high calibre; of those papers, sixty percent were published in the Economic Journal, Oxford Economic Papers, or the Review of Economic Studies.

Kennedy was elected to the House of Commons in 1983, and after the Alliance parties merged, became president of the Liberal Democrats and, following the resignation of Paddy Ashdown, leader of the Liberal Democrats. He led the party through two general elections, increasing its number of seats in the House of Commons to their highest level since 1923, and led his party's opposition to the Iraq War. A charismatic and affable speaker in public, he appeared extensively on television during his leadership.

During the latter stages of Kennedy's leadership, there was concern about both his leadership and his health. From December 2005, some within the party were openly questioning his position and calling for a leadership election. On 5 January 2006, he was informed that ITN would be reporting that he had received treatment for alcoholism; he pre-empted the broadcast by admitting that he had had treatment, and resigned as leader the following day. After Menzies Campbell succeeded him as leader, Kennedy remained in office as a backbench MP, where he voted against the formation of the Cameron–Clegg coalition. He died less than a month after being unseated from the House of Commons in 2015.

Kennedy made his first-class debut for Sussex against Gloucestershire in 1872. He made twenty further first-class appearances for the county, the last of which came against Surrey in 1878. In his 21 first-class matches for Sussex, he scored a total of 272 runs at an average of 8.00, with a high score of 37. He also made two first-class appearances for the South against the North in 1875.

He died at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 31 January 1906.