William Kendall was a member of Wakefield Historical Society.
A blue plaque has recently been unveiled in Ossett to commemorate the life and work of local architect William Arthur Kendall (1857-1936). He was responsible for the design of a number of prominent buildings in the town, many of which can still be seen today. His first commission, in 1881, was for the Conservative Club, New Street. Others include the Temperance Hall, Illingworth Street, the Hannah Pickard Fountain, the Mechanics Institute and Technical School (later Ossett Library) and Southdale Council School, which was opened in 1908. Apart from his work in Ossett, he undertook commissions in other towns in the north of England. His obituary in the “Ossett Observer” in January 1937 states that he “devoted much of his leisure time to historical research” and was a prominent member and past president of the Wakefield Paxton Society, a member of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and the Wakefield Historical Society. The blue plaque also commemorates Kendall’s nephew, Charles Kendall Hanson, who was awarded the Military Cross during the First World War and later jointly designed Ossett’s War memorial. The plaque can be found at The Gables, 115 Station Road, the first of a terrace of houses designed and built by Kendall in the late 1890s.
Further information about the Kendall and Hanson families can be found at www.ossett.net