Professor Kendall was born on 15 January 1918, the son of Fritz Ernest Kendall and Emmie Taylor. In 1952 he married Diana Louise Fletcher, they had two sons and four daughters, one of whom is Bridget Kendall (Diplomatic Correspondent for the BBC). Kendall attended Queen’s College, Oxford (graduating in 1943 and made an Honorary Fellow in 1985). He also became a Doctor of Science at Oxford in 1977 and a Doctor of Science at Cambridge in 1988. Kendall was Professor of Mathematical Statistics at the University of Cambridge 1962-1985 and was a Fellow of Churchill College since 1962. Professor Kendall gave lectures all over the world particularly China and the USA. He was a member of various academic societies and associations. Professor Kendall died in October 2007.

Professor Kendall has been awarded a number of prizes including the Guy Medal in Silver, Royal Statistical Society (1955), the Weldon Memorial Prize and Medal for Biometric Science (1974), the Sylvester Medal, Royal Society (1976), the Whitehead Prize, London Mathematical Society (1980), the Guy Medal in Gold, Royal Statistical Society (1981), and the De Morgan Medal, London Mathematical Society (1989).

His publications inlcude "Mathematics in the Archaeological and Historical Sciences" (joint editor, 1971), "Stochastic Analysis" (joint editor, 1973), "Stochastic Geometry" (joint editor, 1974), "Analytic and Geometric Stochastics" (editor, 1986).