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William Nassau Kennedy

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William Nassau Kennedy
2nd Mayor of Winnipeg
In office
1875–1876
Preceded byFrancis Evans Cornish
Succeeded byThomas Scott
Personal details
Born(1839-04-28)28 April 1839
Newcastle, Upper Canada
Died3 May 1885(1885-05-03) (aged 46)
London, England

William Nassau Kennedy (28 April 1839 – 3 May 1885) was the second Mayor of Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1875 to 1876. He was the first commander of The Royal Winnipeg Rifles.

Biography

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Kennedy was born in Newcastle, Upper Canada (now Newcastle, Ontario) and was the second of six children of John Kennedy, a housepainter and lieutenant-colonel in the militia, and Catharine Lambert.[1]

Grave of William Nassau Kennedy in Highgate Cemetery

Kennedy enlisted in the Peterborough Rifle Company in 1857.[1] He was commissioned as an ensign in 1865 and served during the Fenian raids. In 1867, Kennedy was gazetted as a captain in the newly formed 57th Peterborough Battalion of Infantry.[1] In 1870 he joined the Wolseley expedition to fight the Red River Rebellion in what is now Manitoba.

He remained in Manitoba after the fighting ended.[1]

He served in the Nile Expedition with the Nile Voyageurs. He was returning to Canada to command the 90th Winnipeg rifles in the North-West Rebellion.

He died in London from a disease contracted in Sudan on 3 May 1885 and was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery, almost opposite the tomb of Karl Marx.

References

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