Norman Kennedy (rugby union)

He joined the Ayrshire Yeomanry in 1899. In the First World War he served with them in Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine.[2]

He commanded the Yeomanry from 1924 to 1928 as Lieutenant Colonel. Twice mentioned in despatches he was awarded the D.S.O.[6]

He obtained the rank of Honorary Colonel.[2][6]

Kennedy succeeded his father as a director of Robert Young Pickering co. in Wishaw. He remained a director until the Lithgow group was founded.[2]

He was a governing director of James Kennedy and Co. Ltd., a timber importers of Glasgow.[2] They had extensive interests in the United States and Canada.[6] The Head Office was 69 Buchanan Street in Glasgow, but they had branch offices in Bo'ness, Liverpool, London, and in Memphis, Tennessee.[7]

Through his timber importing connections, he was appointed as consul for Honduras in Glasgow.[6]

He became a director of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in 1920 and in 1935 he was elected the President of the chamber.[6]

For a time, he was a director of George Outram and Co., the owners of the Glasgow Herald newspaper. He retired for health reasons in 1958.[6]

He became a director of the Bank of Scotland.[2]

His father James Kennedy took on a herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle at Doonholm. Both James and then Norman successfully exhibited their cattle in Scotland and in England. Norman became President of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society. He became chairman of the Agricultural Executive Committee for South Ayrshire; and for his work on that committee he was awarded a C.B.E. He was also made Deputy lieutenant of Ayrshire.[2][6]

Born in Old Kilpatrick, he was the only surviving son of James Kennedy of Doonholm.[6]

James Kennedy was one of the original directors of R.Y. Pickering when that company was founded in 1888.[2]

James Kennedy's mother was Eliza Pagan, daughter of James Pagan (1812-1870). James Pagan was editor of the Glasgow Herald from 1856 to 1870.[6]

James Kennedy and Eliza Pagan had 4 daughters Alice, Gertrude, Nora and Myra; as well as sons Norman and William. Unfortunately William did not survive infancy.

Norman was to marry Sylvia Bingham in 1915. Sylvia was the younger daughter of Brigadier General Edmund George Henry Bingham (Royal Artillery) and Beatrice Helen Stephen (1861-1949) who married in 1886 in Australia. Her mother Beatrice Helen had remarried when Bingham died in 1904, she married Hugh Palliser Hickman (1856-1930) in 1905.[6][8]

Norman Kennedy and Sylvia Bingham had two sons and two daughters.[6]