Researching Thomas Kennedy

Kennedy was first appointed Minister of Agriculture in 1930 by Premier Howard Ferguson and continued in the position under Premier George S. Henry until the Conservative government's defeat in the 1934 provincial election. Kennedy was a casualty in the election losing his seat to the landslide that elected the government of Liberal Mitchell Hepburn. Kennedy returned to the legislature in the 1937 election and returned to government when the newly renamed Progressive Conservatives won the 1943 election.

The new premier, George Drew, returned Kennedy to the position of Minister of Agriculture he had held a decade previously. Drew moved to federal politics in 1948 after losing his own seat in the 1948 provincial election which, nevertheless, re-elected the Tory government.

Kennedy became interim Premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party in October 1948 following Drew's departure and remained so for seven months until the party could hold its April 27, 1949 leadership convention which elected Leslie Frost as the new party leader, who was thus appointed as Premier. Kennedy continued as Minister of Agriculture during this period.

Frost succeeded Kennedy as Premier on May 4, 1949, and kept Kennedy as Agriculture Minister until 1953, when he stepped down from Cabinet at the age of 75. He remained a member of the legislature until his death in 1959.

In 1820 he married the only daughter of Sir Samuel Romilly. He was greatly assisted by Lord Cockburn, then Mr. Henry Cockburn, and a volume of correspondence published by Kennedy in 1874 forms a curious and interesting record of the consultations of the two friends on measures which they regarded as requisite for the political regeneration of their native country. One of the first measures to which he directed his attention was the withdrawal of the power of nominating juries from the judges, and the imparting of a right of peremptory challenge to prisoners. Among other subjects were the improvement of the parish schools, of pauper administration, and of several of the corrupt forms of legal procedure which then prevailed.

Kennedy took a prominent part in the construction of the Scottish Reform Act 1832; indeed he and Lord Cockburn may almost be regarded as its authors. After the accession of the Whigs to office in 1832 he held office in the ministry as Clerk of the Ordnance in 1832 and as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from 1832 to 1834, and most of the measures of reform for Scotland, such as burgh reform, the improvements in the law of entail, and the reform of the sheriff courts, owed much to his sagacity and energy. In 1837 he went to Ireland as pay master of civil services, and set himself to the promotion of various measures of reform. Kennedy retired from office in 1854, but continued to take keen interest in political affairs and up to his death in 1879 took a great part in both county and parish business. He had a stern love of justice, and a determined hatred of everything savouring of corruption or dishonesty.

Kennedy was born in 1887 in Lansford, Pennsylvania. He started work in the mines at the age of 12, breaking large chunks of coal into smaller pieces. He joined the Mine Workers in 1900, and was elected secretary of Local 1738 in 1903. He was elected to the District 7 board in 1908, and as District 7 president in 1910; he served until 1925. During this time, he was UMWA's chief negotiator for contracts with anthracite coal mine owners.

In 1925, he was elected UMWA's secretary-treasurer. He left that position when he was elected an international vice president in 1947. During his tenure as a UMWA vice president, he led the battle to convince the American Federation of Labor to embrace social insurance and unemployment insurance.

He was elected lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 1934, becoming the first Democrat to hold the office since Chauncey Black left office in 1887. He ran for governor four years later, but was defeated when the state Democratic political machine decided not to support him.

Kennedy was appointed to the National Defense Mediation Board in 1941, but resigned in protest later that year after the board ruled against UMWA in the "captive mines" case. He was re-appointed in 1942, but resigned again when the board issued its "Little Steel" organizing decision.

After Lewis' retirement in 1960, Kennedy was elected president of the union. Although Lewis favored W. A. Boyle as his successor, Kennedy was well liked and well known. Kennedy was in failing health, however, and Boyle took over many of the president's duties. In November 1962, Kennedy became too ill to continue his duties and Boyle was named acting president. Kennedy died on January 19, 1963, in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and Boyle was elected president as his successor.

In 1893, Kennedy contested the seat of Benalla and Yarrawonga in the Victorian Legislative Assembly at the general election. He received the same number of votes as another candidate, Lieutenant-Colonel John Montgomery Templeton, with the returning officer declaring Templeton the winner on his casting vote. Kennedy then lodged a petition with the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, alleging irregularities in the electoral process (the Devenish booth had received no electoral roll), and also that Templeton held an office of profit under the crown as a member of the Victorian militia and an official liquidator. In November 1893, the Committee of Elections and Qualifications declared the election in Benalla and Yarrawonga void, although it also ruled that liquidator was not an office of profit under the crown. A by-election was held on 20 November, which Kennedy won.

He remained in the Legislative Assembly until 1901. In that year, he transferred to federal politics, winning the Australian House of Representatives seat of Moira for the Protectionist Party at the first federal election. Kennedy's seat of Moira was abolished in 1906; he contested Echuca instead, but was narrowly defeated by Albert Palmer. He retired from politics and became a farmer at Buffalo. Kennedy died in 1929.

Kennedy was born into a family with a history of military service, and entered the navy shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. After some service on frigates during the various armament crises, in which Kennedy saw service on foreign stations, he was actively involved in the Siege of Toulon, and afterwards was promoted to lieutenant. He spent some time in the East Indies, distinguishing himself in action, before returning to British waters and serving under a number of prominent naval officers aboard ships of the line. One such officer was Eliab Harvey, who later asked for him to become first-lieutenant on his ship, the 98-gun .

Aboard Temeraire Kennedy fought at Trafalgar and played a key role in the capture of the French Fougueux. Promoted to commander for his services, Kennedy captained a ship during the Walcheren Campaign, before being promoted to post-captain shortly before the end of the Napoleonic Wars. His last posting was in 1834, as Captain-Superintendent at Sheerness Dockyard. For the last two years of his commission he commanded his old ship, HMS Temeraire, which was at Sheerness, serving as a guardship. He was required to arrange and oversee the sale and disposal of the Trafalgar veteran in 1838, one of his last duties before his own commission ended later that year. Kennedy subsequently went into retirement and died in 1846.