Scholar and Anglo-Saxonist. The eldest son of Charles Kemble the actor and brother of the famous actress and writer, Fanny Kemble. He was educated at the grammar school of Bury St Edmunds, where he obtained, in 1826, an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, he flourished as a member of the freethinking "Cambridge Conversazione Society," otherwise known as “The Apostles.” At the university his historical essays gained him a high reputation. The focus of his studies centred on the Anglo-Saxon period. He later became the first editor (in England) of the poem Beowulf; he collected the texts of the entire corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters, published as the Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, 6 vols. (1839-48); he also produced a seminal two-volume study of Anglo-Saxon society and political institutions, published as The Saxons in England (1849). He was editor of the British and Foreign Review from 1835 to 1844; and from 1840 to his death was examiner of plays. In 1857 he published State Papers and Correspondence illustrative of the Social and Political State of Europe from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover. The website of the Joint Committee on Anglo-Saxon Charters, British Academy/Royal Historical Society is named “Kemble” in his honor.
Scholar and Anglo-Saxonist. The eldest son of Charles Kemble the actor and brother of the famous actress and writer, Fanny Kemble. He was educated at the grammar school of Bury St Edmunds, where he obtained, in 1826, an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, he flourished as a member of the freethinking "Cambridge Conversazione Society," otherwise known as “The Apostles.” At the university his historical essays gained him a high reputation. The focus of his studies centred on the Anglo-Saxon period. He later became the first editor (in England) of the poem Beowulf; he collected the texts of the entire corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters, published as the Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, 6 vols. (1839-48); he also produced a seminal two-volume study of Anglo-Saxon society and political institutions, published as The Saxons in England (1849). He was editor of the British and Foreign Review from 1835 to 1844; and from 1840 to his death was examiner of plays. In 1857 he published State Papers and Correspondence illustrative of the Social and Political State of Europe from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover. The website of the Joint Committee on Anglo-Saxon Charters, British Academy/Royal Historical Society is named “Kemble” in his honor.
Bio by: Frank Duffin
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