Kendrew attended Mountjoy School before going to Oxford University where he studied classical literature.
[1] His first publication was a chapter on climate written for the Oxford Survey of the British Empire edited by his professor at the time, A. J.
When World War I began he enlisted in the army and started officer training at a program in Oxford.
[3] In 1942, he joined the Royal Navy Reserve as a Lieutenant where he was assigned to set up a weather station on Agaléga Island in the western Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar.
he published a book entitled Weather: An Introductory Meteorology For Airmen in 1942 and performed surveys of flora and fauna on the island.
He also worked for the Canadian Government at the Defence Research Board and the Meteorological Branch of the Department of Transport.