Thomas Henry Kendall (18 April 1839[a] – 1 August 1882), was an Australian author and bush poet, who was particularly known for his poems and tales set in a natural environment.

Thomas Kendall, an Englishman who came to Sydney in 1809 and five years later went as a missionary to New Zealand, before settling in New South Wales in 1827.

Returning from his maritime experience to Sydney when 17-years-old, Kendall found his mother keeping a boarding-school; it was necessary that he should do something to earn a living, and he became a shop-assistant.

He was transferred to the colonial secretary's department in 1864 and appears to have discharged his duties in a conscientious way; his hours were not long and he had some leisure for literature.

But he had become financially embarrassed before his marriage on account of the extravagance of his family, and his wife found it impossible to live with his mother, who had joined the young couple.

The elder Mrs Kendall was in fact practically a dipsomaniac, and the poet felt that the only chance of happiness for himself and his wife was to make a fresh start in another city.

Some of his work was accepted by the press and George Robertson published his second volume of poetry, Leaves from Australian Forests, soon after his arrival.

The press notices were favourable, one reviewer in his enthusiasm going so far as to say that "Swinburne, Arnold and Morris are indulgently treated if we allow them an equal measure of poetic feeling with Kendall".

One day McCrae was called out into the passage to see Kendall, an agitated, trembling figure who told him he must go, he could not stand it any longer.

Kendall had indeed lost heart; he drifted into drinking and Alexander Sutherland in his essay draws a lurid picture of the depths into which the poet had fallen.

Unable to support his family, he was forced back to Sydney by poverty, ill health and drunkenness.

His wife had to return to her mother and Kendall became a derelict; in early 1873 he spent four months in the Gladesville Hospital for the Insane.

In 1881 his old friend Sir Henry Parkes had him appointed inspector of state forests at a salary of £500 a year.