- Sir Kenneth O'Connor
Sir Kenneth Kennedy O'Connor, KBE, MC, QC (
21 December 1896 -13 January 1985 ) had a long and distinguished career in the Colonial Service.O'Connor was born in
Ranchi ,Jharkhand ,British India . He was the second child of the Revd. William O'Connor and Emma (née Kennedy).He was educated at
Saint Columba's College, Dublin where he was a chorister and cricketer. From here he won a choral scholarship toWorcester College , Oxford but was unable to take it up due to theFirst World War . In 1915, he joined the Indian Army as an officer in the 14th (KGO) Ferozepore Sikhs. He was awarded theMilitary Cross "for distinguished and meritorious services" at theBattle of Sharqat , during the campaign inMesopotamia against the Turks. Sir Kenneth later wrote a short account of theBattle of Sharqat . After the war he left the Indian Army with the rank of Captain, though he was later made an Honorary Colonel.O'Connor then joined the Foreign & Political Department of the Government of India, serving as the British District Commissioner in
Charsadda , a district of NorthernIndia (nowPakistan ) adjoining theKhyber Pass . In 1922, he resigned and returned to England, where he was called to the London Bar in 1924 byGray's Inn . After a short time practising at the London Bar, he became a partner in the firm ofDrew & Napier inSingapore . In Singapore, he met and married Margaret Helen Wise, eldest daughter of the rubber planter Percy Furlong Wise, scion of the noble, Devonshire dynasty.As Chairman of the Straits Settlements Association, O'Connor played a key role in planning the civilian evacuation of the island in the event of a Japanese invasion. He, himself, escaped at the last minute in a small, open sailing boat with the wrong sails and a children's atlas for navigation. With three others, he made it to Sumatra. He later wrote a short account of this adventure, entitled 'Four Men in a Boat'. He had already evacuated his young family (Anthony, born 1933 and Hugh, born 1940) to Australia, where he went to join them.
In 1943, having joined the Colonial Legal Service, he was appointed
Attorney General , Nyasaland, nowMalawi . After the war he returned to Singapore to reconstruct the legal practice of Drew & Napier. In 1946, he was appointedAttorney General , Malaya and in 1948,Attorney General ,Kenya .In 1951, O'Connor was appointed
Chief Justice ,Jamaica in which position he served until 1954. In 1954, he was recalled toKenya asChief Justice . At this time, theMau Mau Uprising was at its peak. O'Connor was the senior presiding judge in many Mau Mau trials, the most notable being that ofDedan Kimathi , whom O'Connor sentenced to death in 1957. O'Connor finished his distinguished legal career as President of the Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa from 1957-1962, with jurisdiction overKenya ,Uganda andTanganyika . With Independence, Sir Kenneth and Lady O'Connor retired to their house, Buckland Court, in Surrey, England in 1962.Sir Kenneth died on
January 13 ,1985 , aged 88.
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