| Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert | |
| Birth Date: | 1840 |
| Death Date: | 5 March 1916 |
| Death Place: | West Kensington |
| Occupation: | Soldier, cook |
Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert (1840 – 5 March 1916) was a British soldier who served in the British Indian Army, and wrote on cooking.
Kenney-Herbert entered Rugby School in 1855 as Arthur Robert Kenney.[1] He served in the Indian Army from age 19. A cornet in 1859, he served in the Madras Cavalry, having arrived in India on 31 October of that year. He reached the rank of major in 1875,[2] at this rank serving as deputy assistant quartermaster general at Madras until 1881,[3] then as military secretary to the governor of Madras from 1881 to 1884. In 1885, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the Madras Cavalry.[4] He retired in 1892 with the rank of colonel.[5] [6]
Kenney-Herbert wrote regular articles about Anglo-Indian cookery for The Madras Mail, Madras Atheneum and The Daily News, using the pen-name Wyvern. These were collected and published in 1878 as Culinary Jottings for Madras, Or, A Treatise in Thirty Chapters on Reformed Cookery for Anglo-Indian Exiles, which went through six editions between 1878 and 1892.[7] Upon retiring from the army and returning to England, he started a cookery school – the Common-sense Cookery Association – in June 1894. Its premises were at 17 Sloane Street in London.[8]
Kenney-Herbert was not a vegetarian, but he did author the cookbook Vegetarian and Simple Diet in 1904. The book espouses ovo-lacto vegetarian recipes. It was positively reviewed in The Lancet journal, which noted that "we are glad to welcome the appearance of a book which will teach householders that appetising dishes can be made from vegetables with the aid of eggs and milk products."[9]
Kenney-Herbert was fond of kedgeree. His recipe consisted of boiled rice, chopped boiled egg, cold minced fish that is heated with herbs, pepper and salt.[10]
Kenney-Herbert was the son of the Rev. Arthur Robert Kenney (1805–1884), son of Arthur Henry Kenney and rector of Bourton-on-Dunsmore, and his wife Mary Louise Palmer. Rev. Arthur Robert Kenney changed his name in later life to Arthur Robert Kenney-Herbert, his mother, Mary Lusinda, being daughter of Robert Herbert, of that family of Castle Island, a branch of that of Muckross, County Kerry, where the Herbert family, originally from Wales, had been settled since the 1600s. Of this family were the Anglo-Irish politician Henry Arthur Herbert, whose namesake grandson was also a politician, and the Royal Navy officer Thomas Herbert.[11] [12] [13] [14] [15]
He married Agnes Cleveland, daughter of General John Wheeler Cleveland. Arthur Cleveland Herbert Kenney-Herbert of the Northants Regiment was their son.[15] Kenney-Herbert died on 5 March 1916 at Sinclair Gardens in West Kensington.[16]
. Elizabeth David . Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen . 169 . 1970 . Harmondsworth . . 0140461639 .
