PP 2017/0097

TYNWALD HONOURS

COMMITTEE

FIRST REPORT FOR THE

SESSION 2016-2017

TYNWALD HONOURS COMMITTEE

FIRST REPORT FOR THE SESSION 2016-2017

There shall be a Standing Committee of the Court to consider nominations of

deceased persons for inclusion in the Manx Patriots‘ Roll of Honour and to

recommend to Tynwald the award of honours by the Court to living persons.

The Committee shall be composed of the President, who shall be the chairman, the

Speaker of the House of Keys and three Members.

The Committee shall report to Tynwald at least once during the life of each House of

Keys, but not necessarily to make a recommendation.

Any recommendation made by the Tynwald Honours Committee shall be subject to

the approval of a majority of the whole of Tynwald sitting in public and voting as one

body.

The Committee shall be responsible for the erection and ongoing maintenance of the

Manx Patriots‘ Roll of Honour which shall be maintained in a prominent position in

the public part of the Precincts of Tynwald.

A plaque shall be placed in a prominent position at a site in the Island appropriate to

the person admitted to the Roll and the Committee may consider presenting a

suitable memento to the family of the person concerned.

The powers, privileges and immunities relating to the work of a committee of

Tynwald are those conferred by sections 3 and 4 of the Tynwald Proceedings Act

1876, sections 1 to 4 of the Privileges of Tynwald (Publications) Act 1973 and

sections 2 to 4 of the Tynwald Proceedings Act 1984.

Committee Membership

The Hon S C Rodan MLC ex officio (Chairman)

The Hon J P Watterson SHK ex officio (Rushen)

Mr C G Corkish MBE MLC

Mrs D H P Caine MHK (Garff)

Mrs C A Corlett MHK (Douglas Central)

Copies of this Report may be obtained from the Tynwald Library, Legislative

Buildings, Finch Road, Douglas IM1 3PW (Tel: 01624 685520) or may be consulted at

www.tynwald.org.im

All correspondence with regard to this Report should be addressed to the Clerk of

Tynwald, Legislative Buildings, Finch Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 3PW.

Table of Contents

I. BACKGROUND ............................................................................................... 1

II. METHOD OF COMMEMORATION ................................................................... 2

III. NAME OF INDIVIDUAL PROPOSED FOR ADDITION TO THE MANX PATRIOTS’

ROLL OF HONOUR ................................................................................................. 2

IV. ANNEX A - MANX PATRIOTS’ ROLL OF HONOUR ............................................. 5

I. ANNEX B – BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM KENNISH ............................................... 7

NAVAL INVENTIONS 7

MOVE TO AMERICA 9

PANAMA CANAL 9

LATER LIFE 10

BIBLIOGRAPHY 11

APPENDIX 1: 13TH MARCH 2016 WILLIAM KENNISH RESEARCH PAPER BY ROBERT

W STIMPSON ....................................................................................................... 13

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To: The Hon Stephen C Rodan, President of Tynwald,

and the Hon Council and Keys in Tynwald assembled

TYNWALD HONOURS COMMITTEE

FIRST REPORT FOR THE SESSION 2016-2017

I. BACKGROUND

1. The Tynwald Honours Committee was established, following recommendations

made by the Select Committee on Manx Patriots, in December 1998 to propose

names to Tynwald for inclusion in a Manx Patriots’ Roll of Honour for deceased

persons.

2. In December 2002 the Committee’s remit was extended to recommend to

Tynwald the awarding of honours to living Manx persons. A Report setting out

the criteria for the awarding of the Honour, the procedure for nomination of

potentially suitable persons, the process for approval of such nominations and

the procedure for presenting the Honour was approved by Tynwald in July 2005.

The Tynwald Honour was first awarded in 2007.

3. The Roll of Honour1 is designed to give formal recognition to deceased persons

who have made an outstanding contribution to Manx life.

4. The recommended criteria for inclusion on the Manx Patriots’ Roll of Honour

are:

1 Annex A

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1) before the name of any person is recommended for inclusion in the

Manx Patriots' Roll of Honour that person must be shown to have

disinterestedly or self-sacrificially exerted himself or herself to promote

the well-being of the Isle of Man;

2) no living person be considered for inclusion in the Manx Patriots' Roll of

Honour; and

3) inclusion in the Manx Patriots' Roll of Honour be not restricted to

persons born in the Island or of Manx parentage.

II. METHOD OF COMMEMORATION

5. The Roll of Honour is displayed by means of a video presentation in the entrance

lobby to Legislative Buildings. A more detailed record of each recipient is being

included within a dedicated section of the Tynwald website.

6. A separate Tynwald Honour section of the Tynwald website will hold

information about each recipient.

7. In June 2016 Tynwald approved the creation of a prominently located Manx

Patriots’ Roll of Honour Board and a Tynwald Honour Board. Work has

commenced on the Boards and they will be located at St John’s Chapel.

III. NAME OF INDIVIDUAL PROPOSED FOR ADDITION TO THE

MANX PATRIOTS’ ROLL OF HONOUR

8. This year the Committee has decided to nominate Manx inventor, writer,

explorer and Royal Navy veteran, William Kennish (1799-1862).

9. William Kennish was born in Cornaa in 1799, and raised by his parents on the

Cornaa Farm before learning the trade of ship’s carpentry. He joined the Royal

Navy in his early twenties, where he first learnt to speak English, and became

Master Carpenter to the British Fleet in the Mediterranean in his late twenties.

He also conducted surveys of the coastline of the Island for the Royal Navy.

10. In April 1832, Kennish first published his most commended invention, ‘a method

for Concentrating the Fire of a Broadside’, which was a system intended to

improve the aim of naval artillery with the use of a marine theodolite. The

design was awarded the Gold Isis Medal of the Society for the Encouragement of

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Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in 1832. In 1837 Kennish published the

method as a book, along with a number of other related inventions.

11. His collection of poetry about Manx history, tradition and superstition, Mona’s

Isle, was published in January 1844 to a subscribers list comprising of Manx and

non-Manx recipients.

12. Following his Royal Navy career he returned to the Island in April 1844 becoming

Headmaster of Ballasalla Parochial School and teaching mathematical and

scientific subjects. In August 1844 his poem, O Yee, What will Poor Mannin Do,

which aired his concerns about changes in the society of the Isle of Man, was

published in the Mona’s Herald.

13. After five years in the Isle of Man, Kennish left for America in 1849 and filed a

patent for a hydraulic valve gear; the sale of the rights to the invention allowed

his wife and six children to join him. The following year he developed new

designs for a diving machine and built a prototype which was exhibited in New

York.

14. In 1850, as Chief Engineer and Manager of New York company the Hope

Association, Kennish embarked on expeditions in South America investigating

the possibility of linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The result of the first

four expeditions was a proposed canal route via the Atrato and Truando rivers.

The proposals were published in 1855 in New York as The Practicability and

Importance of a Ship Canal to connect the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans.

15. After the expeditions, Kennish developed a career as an independent engineer

and continued to invent, taking out a number of patents in the US and Britain.

He died of pneumonia in New York on 19th March 1862.

16. The University College Isle of Man’s engineering courses are run from its

purpose-built workshops at the William Kennish Building, named in his honour.

17. In February 2017 a memorial stone started its journey from the Isle of Man to

New York to mark the grave of William Kennish; it is a result of the fundraising

campaign by The William Kennish Memorial Trust. The stone was placed in the

Green Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, where Kennish was buried in an unmarked

grave, in time for the 155th anniversary of his death.

18. A research paper produced by the Tynwald Chamber and Information Service

can be found at Annex B. This paper provides information on William Kennish’s

various international achievements. The paper is intended to supplement the

note produced by Mr Robert W Stimpson on 13th March 2016 which is attached

at Appendix 1.

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Recommendation

That Tynwald approves William Kennish for inclusion in the Manx Patriots' Roll

of Honour.

S C Rodan (Chairman)

J P Watterson

C G Corkish

D H P Caine

C A Corlett

May 2017

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V. ANNEX A - MANX PATRIOTS’ ROLL OF HONOUR

Edward Christian 1600-1661 Electoral Reformer

William Christian - Illiam Dhone 1608-1663 Manx Patriot

Godred Crovan d. 1095 First King of Mann and the Isles

Rt Revd Thomas Wilson DD 1663-1755 Church and Educational Reformer and Historian

Rt Revd Isaac Barrow DD 1614-1680 Church and Educational Reformer

Eleanor (Nellie) Brennan 1792-1859 Nursed Cholera Victims

Revd Thomas Edward Brown 1830-1897 Manx National Poet

Major Robert Henry Cain VC TD 1909-1974 Gallant and Distinguished Soldier

Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH KBE MHK

1853-1931 Author and Constitutional Reformer

Sir William Percy Cowley KBE 1886-1958 Constitutional Reformer and Culturalist

John Christian Curwen MP MHK 1756-1828 Agricultural Reformer

Mona Douglas MBE RBV 1898-1987 Poet, Folklorist and Collector

Sir James Gell CVO JP 1823-1905 Constitutional Reformer

Sir William Hillary Bt 1771-1847 Founder of RNLI

Sir Henry Charles Kerruish OBE LLD(hc) SHK CP

1917-2003 Reforming Parliamentarian

Arthur William Moore CVO JP SHK

1853-1909 Constitutional Reformer and Historian

Henry Bloom Noble 1816-1903 Public Benefactor

Sir Joseph Davidson Qualtrough CBE JP SHK

1885-1960 Constitutional Reformer

Captain John Quilliam RN 1771-1829 Distinguished Naval Officer

Marion Shimmin MHK 1878-1942 First Female MHK

Mavis Kelly LRAM 1926-2005 Musician and Teacher

James Brown 1815-1881 Democratic Reformer

Robert Fargher 1803-1863 Democratic Reformer

Samuel Norris MLC 1875-1948 Reforming Parliamentarian

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I. ANNEX B – BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM KENNISH

Naval Inventions

A Manx speaker and son of a farmer, Kennish joined the Royal Navy in his early twenties as a

seaman with little English. By his late twenties, he had risen to the rank of Master Carpenter

and acquired enough scientific and engineering knowledge that he was able to start work on

a number of inventions.

In April 1832, following experiments on board the HMS Hussar, Kennish first published his

most commended invention, ‘a Method for Concentrating the Fire of a Broadside’. This

system was intended to improve the aim of naval artillery with the use of a marine

theodolite (an instrument for measuring angles). There are two aspects to William’s

invention – the first part was two pieces of equipment directly connected to each gun, the

first was called the Breast-Piece, which combined with a second piece called the Quoin, and

together they pointed all the guns on one side of the ship to a single point at either 200, 500

or 800 yards distance. The second aspect was a means to detect when the ship was in the

upright orientation which would allow the command to fire to be issued by the ringing of a

bell.’2 The design was awarded the Gold Isis Medal of the Society of Arts, Manufactures and

Commerce in 1832, who published it in their proceedings 1832/1833.3 It was also strongly

recommended by a committee established by the Lords of the Admiralty in October 1832 to

report on inventions. In 1837, Kennish published the Method as a book, along with a number

of other related inventions: a ‘method for engaging a battery with a ship at a long range’; a

‘method for floating guns on shore by means of water tanks’; and a ‘description of a fuze,

intended to burst the shell on striking the object without reference to the distance’.4

2 Stimpson, Manninagh Dooie, p. 232.

3 Reproduced in Stimpson, Manninagh Dooie, pp. 233-242.

4 Reproduced in Stimpson, Manninagh Dooie, pp. 243-305.

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Illustration of the Method5

The Marine Theodolite designed by Kennish, from the 1837 book6

Kennish invented a number of other solutions to naval problems, but he was often thwarted

by a lack of means to test his ideas. In 1838, he detailed the ‘disadvantages that attend the

use of black paint on board ship’, suggesting that ships ought instead to be painted grey in

order to prevent heat distortion; despite the successful experiments on board the HMS

Excellent, the Royal Navy did not abandon the use of black paint until the end of the century.

He proposed three new types of pumps, which were rejected by the Society for Arts largely

due to limitations in manufacturing at the time. An artificial horizon, intended to take the

5 http://www.william-kennish.com/Inventor/inventor.html

6 http://www.william-kennish.com/Inventor/inventor.html

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sun’s meridian altitude at sea when the horizon is obscured by haze or fog, was considered

at a meeting of the Committee of Mechanics on 5th April 1838, which deemed it ‘likely to be

of use on board ship’.7 The Committee also considered his ‘Method for Drowning the

Magazine of a Ship of War’ and a ‘Pneumatic Sounding Instrument’ (10th May 1838), neither

of which were recommended for further attention of the Society. The Committee finally

considered Kennish’s designs for a Hydrostratic Diving Machine on 7th March 1839), which

was considered to have great ingenuity but lacked the practical results to back up the

theory.

Kennish also designed systems in response to the Royal Navy’s interest in steam propulsion.

In 1838 he wrote to the Lord of the Admiralty to explain how he had developed an improved

method of condensing the team from an engine cylinder, which was again stymied by the

lack of practical experimentation—elements of it had already been trialled without success.

Having retired from the Navy in 1841 and taken up employment in the Civilian Architect’s

Office, Kennish’s designs for a new shape of screw propeller were similarly rejected in March

1844; shortly afterwards, Kennish returned to the Isle of Man. In 1845, he proposed a

Pneumatic Tube, a ‘cylindrical pipe from the Admiralty to the difference out ports for the

conveyance of letters’, receipt of which was acknowledged by the Admiralty, but no further

action appears to have been taken.

Move to America

After five years in the Isle of Man,8 Kennish left for America in early 1849 with the intention

of patenting a new invention. By the end of the year, he had achieved this aim: on Christmas

Eve 1849 he filed a patent for a hydraulic valve gear, having sold his rights to the invention

to a Cornelius S. Van Wagoner. This sale supplied the funds to allow his wife and six children

to travel to America to join him. The next year, he developed new designs for a diving

machine, and this time he was able to build a prototype which was exhibited in New York;

however, the project appears to have gone no further.9 This was perhaps due to Kennish’s

new project.

Panama Canal

In June 1850 Kennish’s attentions turned to the area of South America now known as

Columbia, specifically Panama and New Grenada. The possibility of linking the Atlantic and

Pacific oceans in this area had been the subject of some debate since the discovery of the

latter ocean in the early sixteenth century. In the early eighteenth century, Alexander von

7 Stimpson, Manninagh Dooie, p. 313.

8 See Mr Stimpson’s note for more information on Kennish’s work during this period.

9 Stimpson, Manninagh Dooie, p. 124.

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Humboldt had proposed ten possible routes based on second-hand information; in the mid-

eighteenth century there were several other enthusiastic but often unscientific attempts to

locate a route, none of which persuaded industrialists to invest in such schemes. Stimpson

suggests that Kennish’s appointment to explore the region was on the grounds of his proven

abilities: ‘[His] new countrymen looked not at his humble Manx origin but at his abilities, and

the keen match they formed with the skills they sought – skills which some members of the

early Victorian English society he had recently left behind, had sadly overlooked due to his

“lowly station” or social standing’.10 He was appointed Chief Engineer and Manager of new

company the Hope Association and set sail on 15th July 1850 for Cartagena on the Atlantic

coast of New Grenada, the first of five expeditions to survey the region.

The result of the first four expeditions was a proposed canal route via the Atrato and

Truando rivers, making Kennish ‘the first engineer who has ever proposed to unite the two

oceans by a passage up one mouth and down another, of a never-failing river, without any

locks, which is the feature that distinguishes this route from all others’.11 The proposals were

published in 1855 in New York as The Practicability and Importance of a Ship Canal to

connect the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans.

On 3rd March 1857, the US Congress passed legislation that allocated funds to an official

survey to check the results of Kennish’s expedition. The survey was led by Lieutenant T.A.M

Craven, along with First Lieutenant Michler of the US Topographical Engineers; they were

accompanied by Kennish. The two Lieutenants differed in their assessments of the scheme,

perhaps partly due to their professional rivalry: while Craven was dismissive of the route,

Michler was generally in agreement with Kennish’s findings, although he proposed a change

to the route and the creation of two short canals rather than one long one. Nevertheless,

the events of the American Civil War intervened and stalled any further developments. The

Atrato-Truando route was ultimately not adopted by the US Government, who instead opted

for the Panama route over twenty years later.12

Later Life

After the expeditions, Kennish developed a career as an independent engineer. He also

continued to invent, taking out a number of patents in the US and Britain. In 1857 he

received US patent 17306 for a Submarine Excavator, selling the rights to Andrew B. Grey,

one of the pioneer founders of SanDiego and US chief engineer and surveyor. In October

1859 he received provisional British patent 2409 for ‘Clearing the beds of Rivers’, a system

10 Stimpson, Manninagh Dooie, p. 127.

11 From independent civil engineer Major Edward Wellman Serrell’s confirmatory report of Kennish’s

proposals, cited in Stimpson, Manninagh Dooie, p. 158. 12

See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Panama_Canal

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that used high pressure water jets onto the riverbed. In 1860 he filed a patent in the US for a

hydraulic motor, and in 1861 in Britain he patented ‘Improvements in rotary engines

applicable to the worked by water, steam or other fluids, also to be used as a means of

raising and forcing fluids’, both of which described essentially the same invention: a machine

that turned water pressure into rotating machine power. Kennish’s confidence in the

invention can be discerned from his investment in promoting the device.13 According to

family history, Kennish was also involved in the development of USS Monitor, the first

turreted iron-armoured gunship. He also contributed a series of articles titled ‘William

Kennish’s Practical, Scientific and Mechanical Papers’, to the American Railway Review. The

journal ceased publication a fortnight after Kennish’s death from pneumonia on March 19th

1862.

Bibliography

Robert W. Stimpson: William Kennish: Manninagh Dooie. The Extraordinary Manxman

(Manx Heritage Foundation: Douglas, 2011)

http://www.william-kennish.com/ (as accessed on 7th April 2017)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kennish (as accessed on 7th April 2017)

http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/worthies/p118.htm (as accessed on 7th

April 2017)

13 See Stimpson, Manninagh Dooie, p. 184.

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APPENDIX 1:

13TH MARCH 2016

WILLIAM KENNISH RESEARCH PAPER

BY ROBERT W STIMPSON

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[Signed Robert W Stimpson]

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Parliamentary Copyright

available from:

The Tynwald Library

Legislative Buildings

DOUGLAS

Isle of Man, IM1 3PW

British Isles May 2017

Tel: 01624 685520

e-mail: library@tynwald.org.im Price: £4.65