He was born in Bishopton House in
Renfrewshire on 29 June 1852 the youngest of twelve children of Robert Alexander Kidston, a
Glasgow businessman, and his wife, Mary Anne Meigh. He was educated at the High School in
Stirling. He studied
botany at the
University of Edinburgh and later studied the
Rhynie chert and worked for the
British Geological Survey. Kidston was "arguably the best and most influential palaeobotanist of his day. In over 180 scientific papers he laid the foundations for a modern understanding of the taxonomy and palaeobiology of Devonian and Carboniferous plants." The Prime Minister
Bonar Law was his first cousin. In the 1880s Kidston was asked to catalogue the Palaeozoic plant collection of the British Museum (Natural History). This work began in February 1883, and was completed in 1886. In 1886, he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
Alexander Dikson,
John Duns,
Sir John Murray, and
Robert Gray. He served as the Society's Secretary 1909 to 1916 and as Vice President 1917 to 1920. He uniquely won the Society's Neill Prize twice: 1886-1889 and 1915–17. He received an honorary doctorate (LLD) from
Glasgow University in 1908 and a second doctorate (DSc) from
Manchester University in 1921. He died whilst visiting his friend David Davies in
Gilfach Goch in
Wales on 13 July 1924. He is buried with his family in Logie Churchyard near Stirling. ==Family==