Betty Kenward

Betty Kenward, MBE (born Elizabeth Kemp-Welch; 1906-2001) was an English magazine columnist, known for writing "Jennifer's Diary", originally in Tatler, subsequently in Queen.[1][2][3]

She was born on 14 July 1906, the daughter of Brian Kemp-Welch of Kineton, Warwickshire, England, and was educated by a governess, and at a finishing school at Les Tourelles, Brussels, Belgium.[1] Her brother was the cricketer George Kemp-Welch who married the eldest daughter of Stanley Baldwin.

She married Captain Peter Kenward of the 14th/20th King's Hussars 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]

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 (later 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" and noted her long-running feud with Margaret, Duchess of Argyll and 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.[4]

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.[5]

She died in February 2001.

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Betty Kenward". The Daily Telegraph. 26 January 2001. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Most Exclusive Columnist". The Spectator. 5 July 1985. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Hoge, Warren (1 February 2001). "Betty Kenward, 94, Snobbish Chronicler, Dies". New York Times. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Betty Kenward". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Sale, Johnathan (11 October 1992). "BOOK REVIEW / Rich pals and poor syntax". The Independent. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
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