William Richard Gladstone KentFSA (1884 – 9 May 1963) was a historian of
London who wrote many books on the history of the city.
Early life
William Kent was born in 1884, the youngest son of Richard Kent, the Wesleyan owner of Kent and Matthews, a printing firm, in
Lambeth. He was raised in Tradescant Road, Lambeth, south London, and attended the
Wheatsheaf Hall where he taught Sunday school and was highly involved in young
Methodist activities. He also watched a great deal of cricket at the nearby
Oval and later wrote a book on the sport. Later, his family moved to
Norbury, where his father ran a stationery business. He lost his religious faith in his early adulthood, sometime after reading the work of
Thomas Huxley on
agnosticism.[1][2]
Career
Kent wrote many works on the history of London, notably his very successful Encyclopaedia of London, first published in 1937, and London Worthies, 1939.
His memoirs were published in 1938 as The Testament of a Victorian Youth. His study of
John Burns, whom his father had known as a boy, is his most important other work, offering a critical but witty and not unsympathetic picture of the former labour leader and cabinet minister, whom Kent often visited in the last years of Burns's life. At this time he was living in Union Road, Clapham.
Kent died on 9 May 1963 at
Tooting Bec Hospital, London. His home at the time of his death was 76 Brodrick Road, London SW17. He left an estate of £1869.[3]
Selected publications
1920s
With Charles Dickens in the Borough. London, 1926.
Richard Kent. In Memoriam. 1928.
1930s
Dickens and Religion. 1930.
London for Everyman. J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1931. (revised editions 1961 & 1969)
London for Heretics. Watts & Co., London, 1932.
The George Inn, Southwark. Kent & Matthews, London, 1932.
London for Shakespeare Lovers. 1934.
London for Dickens Lovers. Methuen, London, 1935.
An Encyclopaedia of London. J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1937. (revised edition 1951, revised again by Godfrey Thompson, 1970)
The Testament of a Victorian Youth. Heath Cranton, London, 1938.
London Worthies. Heath Cranton, London, 1939.
1940s
Fifty Years a Cricket Watcher. Cricket Book Society, Hunstanton, 1946.
Edward de Vere, the Seventeenth Earl of Oxford-the Real Shakespeare. Shakespeare Fellowship, London, 1947. (joint author)
London for the Curious. A new and original guide to the Metropolis. James Clarke & Co., London, 1947.
My Lord Mayor. Herbert Jenkins, London, 1947.
The Lost Treasures of London. Phoenix House, London, 1947.
Lift up your Heads. An anthology for freethinkers. Compiled by William Kent. Secular Society/Pioneer Press, London, 1948.
Mine Host London. A chronicle of distinguished visitors. Nicholson & Watson, London, 1948.
London for the Literary Pilgrim. Rockliff, London, 1949.