Sir James Kemnal

James Hermann Rosenthal (1864- 1927) was British Managing Director of Babcock & Wilcox, and said to be instrumental in making the company successful internationally.

He purchased Kemnal Manor in November 1911, and lived there until his death in February 1927 at the age of 62. He was born in Rotherhithe, Surrey on 16 August 1864. His father, David Ferdinand Rosenthal, may have adopted British nationality, while his mother, Elizabeth Marshall was born in Poplar, East London in about 1841. David Rosenthal described himself as a glass and china dealer, and was successful enough to enable his son to be educated in Cologne, after which James worked as an engineering apprentice in Belgium at the State Railway Company.

Shortly after his return to the UK he became involved in the opening of the UK branch of Babcock & Wilcox, a US company, and at the age of 20 was appointed manager of the UK branch. Much of the activity of the branch was in Renfrew, and during this time James will have lived in Scotland, which is why he became associated with the Royal Society in Edinburgh. The branch was successful and in 1891 a UK company was formed.

James Rosenthal became sole Managing Director of UK operations, which became the focus for the overseas activities of the group, and he oversaw the rapid growth of the business in the UK, Europe and beyond, making Babcock & Wilcox the global company it still is today. The key development he oversaw was the introduction of the Babcock & Wilcox boiler, much resisted by British boiler-makers, which accelerated the development of steam-generating plant, and enabled it to be used for electric power stations. The boiler was adopted as the hallmark by the British Government and was fitted to Royal Navy battleships including the Dreadnought.

The Chairman of Babcock & Wilcox, for 38 years, was Sir John Dewrance (whose father launched Stephenson’s Rocket), and head of Dewrance and Co, one of the oldest firms of engineers in England. Sir John lived at Cranmore Place in Chislehurst, and was active in local politics. It is very likely that it was through this connection with Chislehurst that James Rosenthal got to know Chislehurst, and decided to buy Kemnal Manor when it came onto the market.

During the Great War the UK operations were diverted towards assisting the war effort, and it was as a result of this that he was knighted in 1920. In 1915 he had changed his name as so many people with German-sounding names did at that time, following the outcry over the sinking of the Lusitania. James adopted the name of his Estate as his new family name.

One of his obituaries noted that Babcock & Wilcox was one of the few companies able to carry on during the coal strike of 1921 without suffering severe loss, largely because ‘he displayed remarkable business capacity, ability, and power of application, and knew how to secure the help of able subordinates’. He had been interviewed by the editor of Modern Business, a magazine of that time. The article noted: ‘In engineering circles Sir James Kemnal is probably as well known as the First Sea Lord in the Admiralty, while the firm of Babcock & Wilcox has influenced engineering in every corner of the world where an engine is used…Talking to Sir James, a quiet, decided man of action, in the prime of life, who speaks deliberately and slowly in a secluded City Office, one might forget the dramatic significance of his life and work. It is difficult to realise in such surroundings that this very modern City man directs a staff of engineers and associated workers numbering from 5,000 to 6,000 men, and that by his work battleships are made more effective instruments of protection, steamboats more and more capable servants of the distributor, and that mines and mills, and all the productive forces of machinery, in large measure move as a consequence of his energies in the most out-of-the-way corners of the earth’.

In addition to his duties at Babcock & Wilcox he was appointed to a number of public positions, including, President of the British and Latin American Chamber of Commerce, Fellow of the Royal Society, Edinburgh, Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, Freeman of the City of London, Justice of the Peace for the City of Glasgow, and Member of the Institute of Engineers. He was knighted in the 1920 New Year Honours for his services to munitions production.

James died in February 1927, aged only 62, and was buried at Shirley in Surrey at the church of St John the Evangelist. A few days later there was a memorial service held at St Sepulchre’s Church at Holburn Viaduct in London, at which many of his business associates were present.

Stuart Kemnal and the mystery of his death

James had married twice, firstly to his cousin, Amelia Marshall, in September 1899 (they were divorced in 1903), and then to Linda Larita De Leuse in 1905. Linda was the daughter of Clement de Leuse, Nyallo, Victoria, and was a British subject, born ‘at sea’ in 1877. She was 13 years younger than her husband. James and Linda had two children, but the first, named after him, died at birth in 1909. Their second son, Stuart Clement David Rosenthal, was born in 1915, and died in 1950.

Sir James Kemnal’s will was dated 18 May 1926, less than a year before his death. It appointed his nephews Roy Glinn, Horace James and Archibald Hall-Brown as executors, together with his wife. He left his ‘wines, liquors and consumable stores’ to his wife, and his ‘watches, jewellery, trinkets, books, guns, and other sporting effects’ to Stuart when he reached the age of 20. He left his own five brothers and sisters a small lump sum each (totalling £23,000), with the balance of his estate on trust for his son on obtaining the age of 25, with the income from the capital in the meantime being used for Stuart’s maintenance and education. The will left Lady Kemnal no capital or life interest in any of his assets. Indeed James’s will went on to direct that if the annual income from the trust was not sufficient to meet Stuart’s needs, Lady Kemnal would have to make up the difference ‘out of her own moneys’. James had presumably previously settled assets on his wife. When Lady Kemnal died in July 1943, her estate was valued at £49,800, and once again Stuart was the main beneficiary. When Stuart in turn died in 1950 his estate was valued at £480,960.

Stuart was born in 1915. He went to school at Bickley Hall, but we know little of his childhood. Later he became an hotelier, based at the Bull Inn, Barton Mills, Bury St Edmunds, and owned the Royal Hotel in Teignmouth. He also owned Stitchpool Farm in Devon and, after his mother died, Storm, at Sandbanks, as well as Kemnal Manor. He was clearly a very rich young man, but apparently not a happy one.

He committed suicide on 7 March 1950. According to the report in the Sussex Daily News Stuart rented a bungalow, Coombe Cottage, East Preston, Sussex for a month from 24 February. On arriving (on 6 March), he had to ask how to use the slot gas meter, according to the estate agent, and he acted in an eccentric way. Two days later he was found lying on a mattress on the kitchen floor with his head in the gas oven. He had blocked up the window with a blanket and had taken some opium tincture before he died. The coroner recorded a verdict of suicide with insufficient evidence to show the state of his mind, but said ‘It seems likely that this comparatively young man took this house for the purpose of committing suicide in it’.

Why did Stuart take his life? He appears to have been a weak character from childhood and unable to resist pressures that others were putting on him. He had a business partner, Mervyn Seabrook, who may have taken advantage of him, and they may have had a homosexual relationship. The three codicils added to his will in the three years leading up to his death left more and more of his assets to Mervyn. Was Mervyn Seabrook blackmailing him? A relation of Seabrook has confirmed that she believes this was so. Seabrook died in 1993.