HARRY KEMP

Harry Kemp was born in Preston, Lancashire, England around the 1890s. He was the son of George Kemp, a solicitor`s clerk who becoming a travelling showman in 1882 adopting the stage name `President` Kemp.

Harry worked in the family business of showing - and sometimes making - films and putting on concerts in their cinemas including La Scala and Regal Cinemas in Saltcoats. In 1922, Harry was elected to Saltcoats Burgh Council and in 1928 took over the business on the death of his father.

Between 1926 and the opening of the Church of Saint Peter in Chains in 1938, he allowed his Assembly Hall in Bute Place, Ardrossan to be used for Sunday Mass and children’s devotions. He also donated the main altar in the Church.

Harry Kemp died in 1972.


The photograph on the right was taken in about 1940.