Kennedy Collection

Captain Malcolm Duncan Kennedy, O.B.E., (1895-1984) attended Sandhurst and served in the First World War. After being severely wounded he convalesced for a period before taking a course in Japanese at SOAS (he had been posted to the Intelligence Section of Eastern Command Headquarters in London). From 1917 until 1920 he held the post of Military Language Officer in Japan, then returned to London where he worked in the Far Eastern Section of the War Office. The following year he was invalided out of the army and returned to Japan as a businessman. From 1925 until 1934 he was employed as Reuters correspondent in Japan. In 1935 he took up a post at the Foreign Office in Far Eastern affairs. During World War II he continued to work in the Foreign Office on Far Eastern intelligence duties. At the end of the war he moved to the War Office, being based in the headquarters of the Inter-Service Organization.

The Kennedy Collection consists of some 350 books relating chiefly to Japan and other Far Eastern countries.

Approximately two thirds of the books are catalogued and entered in the Library Catalogue.

There is a typescript listing (author and subject).