He was born in London, the son of Henry Kemble, a captain of the 37th Foot, and educated at Maze Hill School Greenwich,
King's College School and
King's College London. In 1865 he took a post in the privy council office, but spent much of his time in amateur theatre, before making his professional début at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, on 7 October 1867. After a year or so as a junior member of the company there, he took old men and character parts in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Scarborough and Newcastle upon Tyne. On 29 August 1874 he made his first appearance in London at
Drury Lane as Tony Foster in Andrew Halliday's
Amy Robsart and was the original Philip of France in the same author's
Richard Coeur de Lion. He then took the part of Dr Caius in
The Merry Wives of Windsor before joining John Hare's company at the
Royal Court Theatre in 1875, where he played Dr Penguin in
J. Palgrave Simpson's
A Scrap of Paper. In September 1876 he appeared at the
Prince of Wales Theatre as Crossby Beck in
Bolton and
Saville Rowe's
Peril (an adaptation of
Victorien Sardou's
Nos intimes), followed by the parts of Sir Oliver Surface in
The School for Scandal and Mr Trelawney Smith in an adaptation of Sardou's
Duty by Albery. On 31 January 1880 he appeared at the
Haymarket Theatre as Mr Stout on the opening night of
Bulwer-Lytton's
Money. After two years alternating between the Haymarket and touring the provinces, first with
Ellen Terry and then with Mrs Scott-Siddons, he reappeared in February 1882 at the Court Theatre as the Revd Mr Jones in
Dion Boucicault's adaptation of
My Little Girl and as Mr Justice Bunby in
F. C. Burnand's farce
The Manager. In 1885 he played his old part of Mr Snarl in
Masks and Faces, by
Charles Reade and
Tom Taylor. For the next fifteen years Kemble played lesser roles in the West End, including some Shakespeare at the Haymarket. In September 1891 he took the part of Polonius at the
Theatre Royal, Manchester in
Herbert Beerbohm Tree's first performance of Hamlet, later becoming a leading member of Tree's Crystal Palace company, joining Tree at
Her Majesty's Theatre on 1 February 1902, to play the original Ctesippus in
Stephen Phillips's
Ulysses. His last stage appearance was in April 1907 as Archibald Coke in
Henry Arthur Jones's
The Liars at the
Criterion Theatre. He died, unmarried, in St Helier, Jersey. And is buried in St Saviour's graveyard Section 1 plot 20 ==References==