Captain James Kinley

Title: Captain

Epithet: Manx language student (1876-not known)

Record type: Biographies

Biography: Captain James Kinley was Peel Harbour Master in the 1920s and played a key role in the Peel Manx classes first set up by Sophia Morrison and Edmund Goodwin. Until his retirement in 1935, Captain Kinley arranged for the classes to be held in the Peel Harbour Master’s Office. Lewis Crellin describes the class in 1942, ‘…gathered round an ordinary kitchen table poring over our lessons by the light of an oil lamp. I still have a strong impression of the atmosphere of the little gatherings, a little world of its own, remote for a couple of hours from the war-torn continent outside; with the grizzled old captain in his black skull-cap peering at us over his glasses and mildly correcting our numerous solecisms.’

Leslie Quirk first went to the Manx classes in 1931/2. “Caeser Cashin was in charge of the class, but Captain Kinley was the one who held sway as it was in the Harbour Master’s Office. His father was an excellent native speaker who came from Port Erin way.”

Gender: Male

Name Variant: Kinley, Captain

Comments