Alfred John Kempe (1784 - 1846)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Antiquarian, baptized at St Mary, Newington, on 16 July 1784, the only son of John Kempe (1749/50–1823). For some years he was a staff writer for the Gentleman’s Magazine, for which he wrote over 200 articles on mainly antiquarian and archaeological subjects.

Kempe married Mary Prior on 3 October 1808. Kempe’s sister Anna Eliza married Charles Alfred Stothard (1786-1821) and the two men became friends, sharing an enthusiasm for antiquities. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquities in 1828, and from among its members, with Crofton Croker, formed the Society of Noviomagus, which took its name from the Roman city supposed to have been sited at Holwood Hill.

Kempe helped his sister in the posthumous production of C. A. Stothard’s Monumental Effigies of Great Britain by writing the introduction and descriptions for this beautifully illustrated work, which came out in parts between 1817 and 1832.