Robert Kennedy

While at Cambridge, Robert Kennedy won the high jump in the match against Oxford on three successive occasions (1935-37). He shared the Scottish title with John Michie in 1936 and placed second at the AAA Championships in 1938, having earlier won the AAA indoor title, a title he could not defend in 1939 due to his medical studies. An exponent of the Eastern cut-off style, he topped the British list for the year 1937 when he set a personal best while in America with the combined Oxbridge team. On leaving Cambridge, Kennedy studied medicine at London University and, after graduating in 1941, later qualified as a surgeon and worked at the Royal Bucks Hospital before entering a practice in Hampstead for many years.

In 1942 Kennedy contributed to the The Young Athlete, a handbook published by the Scottish Athletic Federation which was sent to all schools, former pupils and youth clubs in the hope of stimulating interest in the sport. Kennedy was himself an all-round sportsman excelling at cricket and golf, and in 1933 he reached the second round of the British Boys Golf Championship at Carnoustie and shortly before World War II played rugby for London Hospital.

Personal Bests: HJ – 1.91 (6-3¼) (1937).