Introduction
William Kenrick PC (1831 –1919) was an English iron founder and hardware manufacturer. He was a Liberal politician who was active in local government in Birmingham and sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1899.
Life
Kenrick was born at West Bromwich, Staffordshire, the son of Archibald Kenrick, JP (1798–1878), an iron founder, and his wife, Anne Paget (1798–1864). He became a director of the family firm, Archibald Kenrick & Sons.
He also became active in local politics, becoming a town councillor in 1870, alderman in 1872 and mayor of Birmingham from 1877 to 1878. In the 1885 general election he became MP for Birmingham North. He held the seat until he resigned in 1899 when he became a Privy Councillor. In 1911 he was given Honorary Freedom of the City of Birmingham.
Kenrick had educational and artistic interests. He was a Governor of King Edward's School, Birmingham and was closely connected with the Arts and Crafts movement. He was Chairman of the Museum and School of Arts Committee and was visited by William Morris in 1880. In 1895 he became a director of the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft when it became a limited company.
Marriage and family connections
His sister Harriet married Joseph Chamberlain in July 1861; they were the parents of statesman Austen Chamberlain. After Harriet's death in 1863, Chamberlain married Harriet and William's cousin Florence Kinrick in 1868. Joseph and Florence were the parents of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. On 26 August 1862, Kenrick married Mary Chamberlain, Joseph's sister, at the Union Chapel, Islington.
Kenrick died at The Grove, Park Lane, Harborne, Edgbaston, Warwickshire. A room of his house is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Children
- Cicely Kenrick (1869–1950), married Ernest Debenham on 8 November 1892.
- Millicent Mary Kenrick (1871–1932), married Claude Gerald Napier-Clavering on 30 July 1897; mother of the actor Alan Napier
- Wilfred Byng Kenrick (1872–1962), married his cousin, Norah Beale, on 24 July 1906; later Lord Mayor of Birmingham
- Gerald William Kenrick (1876–1953), married his cousin, Ruth Chamberlain, on 26 April 1912