a revival of 'School.' During the recess he toured the provinces with Miss Ellen Terry, returning to the Haymarket on 20 Sept. to play Captain Mouser in a revival of Buckstone's 'Leap Year.' A few weeks later he played Sir Lucius O'Trigger to the Bob Acres of John S. Clarke. On 20 Oct. 1881 he was the original Cranmer in W. S. Raleigh's 'Queen and Cardinal,' but the play proved a failure, and Kemble went for a time with Mrs. Scott-Siddons (the Anne Boleyn of the cast) into the provinces. On 15 Feb. 1882 he reappeared at the Court in two new characterisations — as the Rev. Mr. Jones in D. G. Boucicault's adaptation 'My Little Girl' and Mr. Justice Bunby in Burnand's farcical comedy 'The Manager.' Other original characters followed. On 20 July 1885 he played his old part of Mr. Snarl in 'Masks and Faces' at the Bancroft farewell.
A variety of engagements of small importance occupied him for the next fifteen years, during which he was the original Mr. Parr on 6 Jan. 1888 in Robert Buchanan's 'Partners' at the Haymarket, where he remained for some time, and he made an acceptable Polonius at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, on 9 Sept. 1891, the occasion of (Sir) Herbert Beerbohm Tree's first performance of 'Hamlet.' Subsequently joining Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree at Her Majesty's, he was, on 1 Feb. 1902, the original Ctesippus in Stephen Phillips's 'Ulysses.' On 4 Nov. following he was seen to advantage at the Duke of York's as the Earl of Loam in Mr. J. M. Barrie's 'The Admirable Crichton.' His last appearance on the stage was made at the Criterion in April 1907 as Archibald Coke in a revival of Mr. Henry Arthur Jones's 'The Liars.' On 17 Nov. following he died, unmarried, at Jersey.
Kemble was an excellent comedian, and revelled in strongly marked character parts. His stout figure and somewhat short stature enhanced the comicality of his mien. Much beloved by his associates, he was affectionately known at the Garrick Club as 'The Beetle,' duo to his early habit of wearing a long brown cloak with a large collar, which he pulled over his head in cold weather.
[Pascoe's Dramatic List; Bancroft Memoirs; Ellen Terry's Story of My Life; Dramatic Notes for 1881–6; William Archer's Theatrical World of 1896; Charles Brookfield's Random Reminiscences, 1902; Green Room Book, 1908.]
KENSIT, JOHN (1853–1902), protestant agitator, born in the City of London on 12 Feb. 1853, was only son of John Kensit by his wife Elizabeth Anne. Educated at Bishopsgate ward schools, he became, in 1868, a choir-boy at the church of St Lawrence Jewry, under Benjamin Morgan Cowie [q. v.], afterwards dean of Exeter. He subsequently entered the warehouse of Messrs. J. and R. Morley as draper's assistant, but found the work uncongenial. About 1871 he opened a small stationer's shop in East Road, Hoxton, and soon extended his business by becoming a sub-postmaster. From an early age he was interested in the cause of militant protestantism, and actively engaged in agitation against what he deemed romanising tendencies in the Anglican church. In 1885 he started the City protestant book depot in Paternoster Row. The bookshop rapidly expanded into a publishing house. Profits were derived not only from evangelical sermons and ultra-protestant pamphlets but from strongly anti-sacerdotal publications which exposed regardless of decorum alleged procedure of the confessional, and paraded isolated instances of monastic asceticism as practices generally prevalent in the Church of England. To advance his views he instituted and edited 'The Churchman's Magazine.' In 1890 the Protestant Truth Society was founded, of which Kensit became secretary. Subscriptions flowed in, and the credit of the society was not shaken by the attacks in the press on the failure of the secretary to issue a balance sheet (Truth, 14 Feb. 1895). In 1894 and again in 1897 Kensit was an unsuccessful candidate for the London school board.
The ecclesiastical agitation of 1898, 1899, and 1900, caused by the growth of ritualism, gave Kensit his opportunity. He now organised a band of itinerant young preachers, named 'Wicliffites,' who created disturbances in ritualistic churches throughout the country. In January 1897 he first attained general notoriety by publicly objecting in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow to the confirmation of Mandell Creighton [q. v. Suppl. I] as bishop of London. Early in 1898 he began an organised anti-ritualist campaign in London. Selecting St. Ethelburga's, Bishopsgate, as the object of an attack, he qualified himself by residence as a parishioner, and frequently interrupted the services. On Good Friday 1898 he protested against the adoration of the cross at St Cuthbert's, Philbeach Gardens. He was fined 3l. for brawling
