Elizabeth Kenward MBE (née Kemp-Welch; 1906–2001) was an English magazine columnist, known for writing "Jennifer's Diary", originally in Tatler, subsequently in Queen.[1][2][3]
Betty Kenward | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Kemp-Welch 14 July 1906 |
| Died | 31 January 2001 (aged 94) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | "Jennifer's Diary" |
Life edit
She was born on 14 July 1906, the daughter of Brian Charles Durant Kemp-Welch[4] of Kineton, Warwickshire, England, and was educated by a governess, and at a finishing school at Les Tourelles, Brussels, Belgium. The Kemp-Welch family were 'solid county Warwickshire stock',[5] appearing in Burke's Landed Gentry.[1] Her brother was the cricketer George Kemp-Welch who married the eldest daughter of Stanley Baldwin.
She married Captain Peter Trayton Kenward[6] of the 14th/20th King's Hussars, employed in his family's brewing business,[7] at St Margaret's, Westminster, in 1932,[1] and adopted his name. They divorced in 1942, leaving her with a nine-year-old son.[1] To pay his fees at Winchester School, she worked as a dame (house matron) at Eton College.[1] Captain Kenward remarried, to Patricia (1918–1957), daughter of Bolton Meredith Eyres-Monsell, 1st Viscount Monsell, in 1947,[8][9] and in 1958 to Bridget Catherine Elizabeth Tucker (1928–2015).[10][11]
Her Tatler column was originally called "On and Off Duty in Town and Country", becoming "Jennifer's Diary" in 1945.[1] She took it to Queen (from 1970 Harpers & Queen) in 1959.[1] She retired in 1991, when she was aged 84.[1] Her obituary in The Daily Telegraph described her as "insufferably snobbish and crotchety", recounting her ferocious treatment of her assistants (many of whom resigned in tears), her propensity for long-running feuds (including, particularly, with Margaret, Duchess of Argyll), and her persistent snubbing of Tatler's social editor, Peter Townend.[1]
She appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 14 December 1974.[12]
She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1986.[1] Her autobiography, Jennifer's Memoirs: Eighty-Five Years of Fun and Functions, was published in 1992.[13]
She died on 24 January 2001 in London.[14]
Bibliography edit
- Kenward, Betty (1992). Jennifer's Memoirs: Eighty-Five Years of Fun and Functions. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0002551137.
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Betty Kenward". The Daily Telegraph. 26 January 2001. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
- ^ "Most Exclusive Columnist". The Spectator. 5 July 1985. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
- ^ Hoge, Warren (1 February 2001). "Betty Kenward, 94, Snobbish Chronicler, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
- ^ Send More Shrouds: The V1 Attack on the Guards' Chapel 1944, Jan Gore, Pen and Sword, 2017, p. 115
- ^ The Spectator, vol. 255, 1985, p.
- ^ World Who's Who of Women 1990/1, Taylor & Francis, 1990, vol. 10, p. 463
- ^ The New York Times Biographical Service, vol. 32, New York Times & Arno Press, 2001, p. 247
- ^ Burke's Peerage, 2003, vol. 2, p. 2045
- ^ Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain, ed. Charles Roger Dod, Roger Phipps Dod, 1960, p. 396
- ^ Joan: Beauty, Rebel, Muse: The Remarkable Life of Joan Leigh Fermor, Simon Fenwick, Pan Macmillan, 2017
- ^ "KENWARD - Deaths Announcements - Telegraph Announcements".
- ^ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Betty Kenward". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ^ Sale, Johnathan (11 October 1992). "BOOK REVIEW / Rich pals and poor syntax". The Independent. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
- ^ Hoge, Warren (February 2001). "Betty Kenward, 94, Snobbish Chronicler, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2017.