Henry KendallPrint Page

The Art Deco style seat, commissioned by Mrs A. Hamilton-Grey and designed by Wilfred Rhodes, commemorates the poet Henry Kendall (1839-1882). The winged horses were carved by L. Bicego, 1939.

Henry Kendall was born in 1839 near Milton on the NSW coast. He lived in the coastal regions of Illawarra in the south of NSW and Clarence River in the north before spending two years aboard a whaling vessel. He returned to live in Sydney and published his first volume of poetry, Poems and Songs in 1862. He moved to Melbourne in 1868 after his marriage and published his second volume, Leaves from Australian Forests in 1869. His lack of success, however, along with the death of his daughter Araluen drove him to alcohol and he was to spend various periods in a Sydney asylum for his addiction. He was finally cured, reunited with his wife and achieved some level of success with his final volume of poetry, Songs from the Mountains, in 1880. He died in 1882.

A memorial seat of carved sandstone to commemorate the work of the Australian poet Henry Kendall has just been completed in the south-western corner of the Domain gates entrance to the Botanic Gardens. The seat is 25 feet long with a 5 feet central pylon and end-pieces in the form of a kneeling Pegasus. Flag paving and turf surround it. On the back of the seat are inscribed the lines from Kendall's own works: "All my days have been the days of a laborious life and ever on my struggling soul has burnt the fierce light of this hurried sphere." Built of Bondi sandstone the seat cost £600. The money was provided by a bequest of the late Mrs. Hamilton-Grey. 
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 7 February 1940. 

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