Architect and inventor. Born in Kinloch (Fife), Kinnear trained with David Bryce (1803-76) and then, in 1856, joined John Dick Peddie (1824-91) to form one of Scotland's leading architectural practices. They built in the Scots Baronial style and drew inspiration from the castles and tower houses of the Scottish Renaissance period. The practice were responsible for a diversity of structures including country houses, churches, hotels and municipal buildings, often favouring red sandstone as a building material. A contract with the Royal Bank of Scotland saw Kinnear involved with designing bank premises in Arbroath (1858), Duns (1857), Drymen (1859), Dumfries (1856), Girvan (1856), Irvine (1857), Kilmarnock (1857) and Maybole (1856) as well as adding to their head office in Edinburgh. Other notable buildings include the Aberdeen Town House (1873), Threave House (1873) and Dunblane Hydro (1878).
Kinnear was also an enthusiastic photographer and invented the first bellows camera in 1857. The previous year he had been a founder of the Photographic Society of Scotland together with his old master David Bryce, physicist Sir David Brewster (1781 - 1868) and architectural historian David MacGibbon (1831 - 1902) and served as its first secretary.
He died in Edinburgh and was buried in Dean Cemetery following a grand funeral. One of his sons, Sir Norman Boyd Kinnear (1882 - 1957) became Director of the British Museum.
