I know a small amount of Kenneth through my father.
He was a Master of Laws at age 21, granted from Victoria University.
He was a yachtsman and had his own sloop called 'Seabird' in the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club near Oriental Bay in Wellington.
He was a capable DIY'er and made modifications to his family home in Sefton Street, Wellington, to which the family moved from the Clark Street, Khandallah home when Herbert Allen died.
As a young man to "avoid getting his feet wet," Kenneth cut the trapdoor under the stairs at Sefton Street. It remains there to this day. From this point he would wriggle down to the granny flat below.
My father described him as a humorist though this was information passed down from his mother (Kenneth's sister)- my father said he never met him to his 'eternal grief.'
My father was the sum total off-spring of the four Kirkcaldie children. The three boys didn't breed, sadly, and only their sister, my grandmother Alison, had one child. He, my father, had four.
All three Kirkcaldie brothers- John (aka. Jack), David and of course Kenny, flew.
Their sister Alison was a stage actress and amateur artist.
Jack (possibly the eldest) was a farmer/pilot who used to round up the sheep using an obsolete ex-air-force two-motor aircraft (maybe a DC-3 Dakota?). My father suggested perhaps he carelessly ran out of petrol one day and flew his plane in to a cliff on his Makara farm (near Karori, Wellington).
David was considered an alcoholic, never married, also ex-RNZAF.
"A bit of a playboy." Not career-orientated, and used to live in the Sefton Street granny-flat, irritating Alison's husband by rapping on the windows as he walked past when he'd had one too many.
He was kicked out of the family home about 1951 so Alison could live in the granny flat and rent out the top two floors of the main house because her husband died unexpectedly. She had bills and her sons boarding school education to maintain.
David died in a converted garage on a hill above Pukerua Bay.
I think Kenneth was the youngest in the family.
There was an uncle or cousin, a farmer, called Bruce Kirkcaldie who lived near Otumoetai, Tauranga too, but unfortunately I know nothing of his details. I'd appreciate any details if anyone ever finds their way here and can elaborate further.
I hope this helps those searching.
You too Warmingdrawer.
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