Henry Kendall

Thomas Henry Kendall (18 April 1839 – 1 August 1882), was an Australian author and bush poet, who was particularly known for his poems and tales set in a natural environment.

Early life

Kendall was born in a settler's hut by Yackungarrah Creek in Yatte Yattah near Ulladulla, New South Wales, twin son (with Basil Edward Kendall) of Basil Kendall and his wife Matilda Kendall, née McNally, and baptised in the Presbyterian church. His father was the second son of Rev. Thomas Kendall, an Englishman who came to Sydney in 1809 and five years later went as a missionary to New Zealand, before settling in New South Wales in 1827.

Kendall has also been known as Henry Clarence Kendall, for reasons unknown (however at the age of 5, his parents moved to the Clarence River area of northern New South Wales).

Journalist and fellow poet A. G. Stephens sought to correct the confusion in 1928, publishing a pamphlet which included proof that the poet was baptised Thomas Henry Kendall, but stated the name of Henry Clarence Kendall at his wedding.

As a youth, he received a private education. When he was 15 he went to sea on a whaling voyage and was away for two years.

Literary career

Starting from the age of 18, for ten years Kendall contributed articles to the Herald, Freeman's Journal, Sydney Punch, Empire, and the Australian Town and Country Journal with poetry and prose, before completing his first work, Poems and Songs for which he later thought little of it. It was this 1862 works however that introduced him to Henry Parkes, then-editor of the Empire.