Harry Robert Kempe

Harry Robert Kempe (1852-1935) was an English electrical engineer, author and editor.

Life
Kempe was born at Kensington, London, on 1 March 1852, the youngest son of the Rev. John Edward Kempe, later rector of St James's Church, Piccadilly, and his wife Harriet (née Wood). An older brother was Sir Alfred Bray Kempe, a barrister and mathematician. Another older brother was the civil servant Sir John Arrow Kempe. On 8 July 1880, he married Helen Catherine. They had one daughter. Kempe lived for many years at Brockham, Surrey. He died on 10 April 1935 and is buried at Brockham church.

Education and career
Kempe was educated at Westminster School and then studied applied science at King's College London from 1867 to 1870, followed by two years in the laboratory of Sir Charles Wheatstone and then three years with Sir Samuel Canning, engineer-in-chief of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, where he was involved with the laying of the Malta to Gibraltar telegraph cable in 1870.

In 1871 he was among the first associate members of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, which later became the Institution of Electrical Engineers. In 1872 Kempe moved to Southampton to work with William Henry Preece, divisional engineer with the postal telegraph. In 1877 Preece was appointed electrician to the Postmaster-General and in 1878 Kempe was transferred to London to act as his assistant.

During the 1890s, Kempe was responsible for many telegraph and telephone services used by the General Post Office (GPO). He succeeded Preece, becoming in 1900 Principal Staff Engineer and in 1907 Electrician to the Post Office. In the GPO, Kempe was well liked by his colleagues, a tribute to him on his retirement describes his outstanding characteristic as a “quality of loveableness”. He retired on 31 December 1912. During World War I he was examiner to the inventions committee of the Air Ministry.

He was an accredited member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Electrical Engineers.