Frederic G. Kenyon

Who was Frederic G. Kenyon?

Sir Frederic George Kenyon, GBE, KCB, TD, FBA, FSA was a British palaeographer and biblical and classical scholar. He occupied from 1889 to 1931 a series of posts at the British Museum. He was also the president of the British Academy from 1917 to 1921, and from 1918 to 1952 he was Gentleman Usher of the Purple Rod.

Kenyon was born in London, the son of John Robert Kenyon, the Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford. After graduating B.A. from Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was later a fellow, he joined the British Museum in 1889 and rose to be its Director and Principal Librarian by 1909. He was knighted for his services in 1912 and remained at his post until 1931.

In 1891, Kenyon edited the editio princeps of Aristotle's Constitution of Athens. In 1920, he was appointed president of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. He spent most of his retirement researching and publishing ancient papyri. He died on 23 August 1952.

Kenyon was a noted scholar of ancient languages, and made a lifelong study of the Bible, especially the New Testament as an historical text.