William Kemp (1788–1864)

Engineer and businessman. Turner and cooper in Galashiels from 1821. Manager of the Gas Company, Galashiels, 1834–60. Amateur geologist and contributor to Chambers’s Journal. Member of the Glasgow Geological Society from 1840, and lecturer to the Galashiels Mechanics’ Institute. Honorary curator of the local museum. Contributed to the London, Edinburgh and Dublin Philosophical Magazine; corresponded with Robert Chambers about terraces in the Tweed river valley.