FSH Kendon (1893-1959): poet

Frank Kendon was born at Bethany House, Kent 12 September 1893. His father Samuel Kendon was schoolmaster of Bethany School, where Frank also worked as a teacher.

Kendon served with the Royal Engineers in Egypt in World War I. He matriculated at St. John’s in 1921 where he studied English. His tutor was EA Benians; whose father had also been a schoolmaster at Bethany School.

Kendon’s time in Cambridge was a “period full of experiment and liveliness; especially in the field of literature” (Eagle, No. 259).  His first book “Poems and Sonnets” was published in 1924. His autobiography “The Small Years” (1930) was Kendon’s most popular book.

He joined the staff of the University Press at Cambridge (CUP) in 1935. In 1948, Kendon was made a Fellow and remained a member of the College’s fellowship until his death.

 While working at CUP, he was commissioned to translate “The Thirty Six Psalms” for The New English Bible but Kendon died before he could finish this work.

 In 1963 CUP published his distinctive and remarkable translations as literary memorial to Kendon.