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.
In over 180 scientific papers he laid the foundations for a modern understanding of the taxonomy and palaeobiology of Devonian and Carboniferous plants.
[4] In the 1880s Kidston was asked to catalogue the Palaeozoic plant collection of the British Museum (Natural History).
He died whilst visiting his friend David Davies in Gilfach Goch in Wales on 13 July 1924.
The medals and a 4000 strong collection of glass negatives were presented to the Geological Survey by his grandson, Geoffrey Wilkinson, in 2007.