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Kennedy Collection

 Collection
Reference code: KEN1

Scope and Contents

A collection of approximately 350 volumes on Japan and some other countries of the Far East, including China, mainly in the 20th century.

For further details of this collection, please see the listing in the External Documents section below.

Dates

  • Creation: 1891 - 1979

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Available by appointment

Biographical / Historical

Malcolm Duncan Kennedy, O.B.E., (1895-1984), expert on Japanese affairs, had a varied career as army officer, businessman, civil servant and intelligence officer, during which he spent some two decades in Japan.

Kennedy was born in Edinburgh, though some of his earliest years were spent in Penang, and educated at Glenalmond School. During his army career he attended Sandhurst before serving in the First World War. After being severely wounded he convalesced for eighteen months before taking a course in Japanese at SOAS, having been posted to the Intelligence Section of Eastern Command Headquarters in London. From 1917 to 1920 he was a Military Language Officer in Japan, before returning to London where he worked in the Far Eastern Section of the War Office. The following year he was invalided out of the army and returned to Japan as a businessman. From 1925 until 1934 he took up a post in the Japanese Section of the Government Dode and Cypher School, combining this with free-lance journalism. During World War II he continued to work there on Far Eastern Intelligence duties. At the end of the war he moved to the War Office, being based in the headquarters of the Inter-Service Organisation. From 1945 until his retirement in 1955 he worked for S.I.S. (MI6).

Extent

350 Volume(s)

Language of Materials

English

Arrangement

Dewey Decimal Classification

Custodial History

Donated by Captain Kennedy to the University of Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies in 1984; held in the University Library on deposit.

Related Materials

Kennedy Papers

Description rules
International Standard for Archival Description - General
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository

Contact:
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
+44 (0) 114 222 7299