Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy

1855 – 1862

Sir Arthur was the third Irishman in a row to be appointed Governor of Western Australia.
He held term from 23 July 1855 to 19 February 1862.

Sir Arthur was a retired infantry officer who attained the rank of Captain before becoming the country inspector of the Board of Works and later the relief inspector during the Irish famine.

When he arrived in Western Australia in mid-1855, the then Government House that had been erected in Stirling’s term was in ‘such a state’ that Kennedy, his wife Georgina and their family moved in only because it had been impossible to rent a suitable residence elsewhere.

The current Government House was designed and erected during Governor Kennedy’s term of office, although he left the colony in 1862, before the building was completed.