 Educated at Robert Gordon's College and the University of Aberdeen, he lived in London and then in Edinburgh (in Warriston Crescent).In 1948, working with Tyrone Guthrie, he staged a revival of Scotland's first Scottish play, David Lyndsay's "Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis" and, also in 1948, he coined the phrase “Edinburgh Festival Fringe”.His son, Arnold Kemp, achieved fame as a newspaper editor.