Kenneth Povey was born on 7 November 1898. He was educated at Whitgift School and in 1916 won an open scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Before going into residence he served as a gunner subaltern during the last year of the First World War on the Western Front and subsequently as an interpreter with the army of occupation. He graduated from Caius with a first in Mediaeval and Modern Languages Tripos Part I (French and German) in 1921.

After graduation, and a short time working for his father's textile company, Povey took the Diploma in Librarianship at University College London. After only a year at Durham, Povey was appointed as Librarian at Queens University Belfast, in 1930. From 1938 until his retirement in 1961 Povey served as librarian at the University of Liverpool. Povey was president of the North West Branch of the Library Association in 1957, and chiefly responsible for forming the North Western Group of its University and Research Section. Besides these professional activities his major interests were in the techniques of early printing and in William Cowper and George Crabbe. Indeed Povey's interest in early printing was so strong that he constructed himself two working models of early printing presses (now in the Bodleian). He conducted detailed research into the life and works of William Hayley, James Hurdis, and Charlotte Smith, but most of this never reached publication. Kenneth Povey died on 11 July 1965.