He was the son of Sir Charles Kennedy, 2nd Baronet and the former Augusta Maria Pery.
[1] His younger brother was George Edward de Vere Kennedy, a Lt. in the 5th Lancers who married a daughter of Sir John Carden, 4th Baronet.
[2] His paternal grandparents were Sir John Kennedy, 1st Baronet and the former Maria Beauman.
[2] Kennedy served as a Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
As neither of them married, after the death of his youngest son in 1974, the baronetcy passed to Derrick Edward de Vere Kennedy, the 3rd Baronet's nephew.