Kenneth O'Connor

Sir Kenneth Kennedy O'Connor KBE MC QC (21 December 1896 – 13 January 1985) had a long and distinguished career in the Colonial Service.

O'Connor was born in Ranchi, Jharkhand, British India. He was the second child of the Revd. William O'Connor and Emma (née Kennedy).

O'Connor was educated at Saint Columba's College, Dublin where he was a chorister and cricketer. From here he won a choral scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford but was unable to take it up due to the First World War.

In 1915, he joined the Indian Army as an officer in the 14th (KGO) Ferozepore Sikhs. He was awarded the Military Cross "for distinguished and meritorious services" at the Battle of Sharqat, during the campaign in Mesopotamia against the Turks. Sir Kenneth later wrote a short account of the Battle of Sharqat. After the war he left the Indian Army with the rank of captain, though he was later made an honorary colonel.

O'Connor then joined the Foreign & Political Department of the Government of India, serving as the British District Commissioner in Charsadda, a district of Northern India (now Pakistan) adjoining the Khyber Pass.

In 1922, he resigned and returned to England, where he was called to the London Bar in 1924 by Gray's Inn.

After a short time practising at the London Bar, he became a partner in the firm of Drew & Napier in Singapore. In Singapore, he met and married Margaret Helen Wise, the eldest daughter of the rubber planter Percy Furlong Wise, of the Devonshire dynasty.

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