William Adam Kennedy M.B. L.R.C.P. M.R.C.S. (18 November 1852 – 27 October 1938) was a homeopathic physician who practiced at 2 Eldon Square, Newcastle.

He was a colleague of homeopaths John Mason Galloway and Thomas Eadie Purdom at the Newcastle-on-Tyne Homoeopathic Dispensary in 1881-2.

William Adam Kennedy was born in South Shields, Co. Durham, to homeopath John Ferguson Kennedy (1811 – 1879) and Annie Young Haslett.

William Kennedy became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1874 and the following year received his Licentiate from the Royal College of Physicians, London. In 1881 he received his M.B. from the University of Durham.

In 1886 he became a member of the British Homoeopathic Society.

In 1882 he married Sarah Hayle (1843 – ), daughter of Rochdale homeopath Dr. Thomas Hayle, whose Newcastle practice William’s father, John Ferguson Kennedy, had taken over. However, the marriage did not work out, and in 1899 Sarah filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery and abandonment. The divorce was granted in 1900.

In the mid-1890s Kennedy emigrated to Australia. In 1894 he commenced practice at 162 Sturt Street, Ballyrat, Victoria, but he subsequently relocated to Perth, Western Australia where, in 1896, he opened a new homeopathic practice at “Rockton,” Adelaide Terrace.

Kennedy subsequently married Effie Mary Elizabeth Harvey (c. 1880 – 1950). They had a daughter, Hilda (1909 – 1984), and a son, William Ferguson Kennedy (1912 – 1976).

Kennedy died in Australia in 1938 aged 85.

Of Interest:

John Ferguson Kennedy L.R.C.P. (1811 – 1879), father of William Adam Kennedy, was an homoeopathic physician who practiced in Newcastle on Tyne.

Charles Oliver Kennedy (1920 – 2002) [no evident relation] was a British homeopathic physician and former President of the Faculty of Homeopathy.