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Alfred Stephen Kenyon (7 December[1] 1867 – 14 May 1943), generally known as A. S. Kenyon or Stephen Kenyon[2] was an Australian civil engineer and polymath.
Kenyon was born in Homebush, Victoria, the only son of Alfred Henderson Kenyon (c. 1837 – 15 September 1921) and his wife Agnes Fleming Kenyon, née Agnew[3] ( – 10 December 1919).[4] Kenyon's father started in Australia as a farmer in the Wimmera district, later a bookseller and dealer in artists' materials,[5][6] chess enthusiast and amateur historian[7]
Kenyon was home-schooled for his early education.[2] Then in 1881 the family moved to Highett Street, Richmond, and he enrolled at nearby St Stephen's Grammar School, and in 1884 he entered Ormond College, Melbourne University, to study civil engineering. He joined the Victorian Public Works Department in 1887, and the following year was appointed to the Victorian Water Supply Department, where he was responsible for water supply works in the northern Mallee regions.
Later he was engineer-in-charge in the opening up of the Middle Mallee, organising the water supply for North Mallee, and, later The Great War, of clearing the Red Cliffs irrigation area for repatriation of returned soldiers. He also supervised the construction of other works, including the Goulburn levees and works at Koo-Wee-Rup, Cardinia, Tresco, Mystic Park, Merbein, and Nyah. In 1932 Kenyon was appointed a commissioner of the Victorian Water Supply Commission.
He acted as part-time curator of the Coin Room in the Melbourne Public Library[8] until his retirement in 1935, when he made his work as numismatist to the Library a full-time occupation.[9]
He built up an extensive library of books specializing in Australiana which he sold in 1935.[10]
Based on his work in country regions of Victoria, Kenyon knew much of the post-settlement history of rural Victoria.[citation needed]
Institutions of which he was a member include:
The A. S. Kenyon Library, Red Cliffs, was named for him. A portrait of him by Graham Thorley, short-listed for the 1940 Archibald Prize, hangs there.[3]
Kenyon married Alexandrine Amelie Leontine Delepine ( – 20 August 1940) on 2 April 1895; they had one daughter:
They had a home at Lower Plenty Road, Heidelberg, where he died; his remains were interred in the Heidelberg cemetery.
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