E J Kennedy

[spondonian]

As part of Spondon's Village Improvement Committee, we have started publishing booklets on subjects of interest (we hope) to anybody with Spondon links. (See www.spondonca.org.uk for details of the first one). Some of you may be aware of the history of Spondon’s schools written by E J Kennedy. There are a few copies of this typescript book around, including one available for reference in Spondon Library. We would dearly like to transcribe this and re-publish it to make it available to a wider audience. However, we are pretty certain that it is still in copyright, so we will need to contact the author (or his descendants) to get permission.

But there seems to be little information about him. What we do know is that he was a teacher at Spondon School, certainly in the 1960’s and may have actually been Doctor Kennedy. We believe that he didn’t actually live in Spondon but possibly in the city centre. He was married but we are unaware of any children.

Any further information that would enable us to trace him would be appreciated.

[spondonian]

Thanks to ex-pupil Tim Johnsen, we now know that Dr Kenedy was Hungarian and his name was spelt with a single n, he held a double Doctorate in Law and Politics from the University of Budapest and came to Britain at the end of World War II. He had worked as a spy for the Allies while in the Hungarian Military and was persona non grata in Hungary after the end of hostilities. He was given a job by the British authorities at British Celanese but did not enjoy this and was allowed to take a post teaching history at Spondon House. During his time in Derby he lived in Belper Road Derby, and moved after retirement to his house in Holland Park London.
Eugene Jeno Kenedy died about March 1988 in Hertfordshire; birth date 21 May 1906. He was married but his wife (maiden name Marjorie Anderson Messervy) died about September 1981 also in Hertfordshire, birth date 2 February 1891.