1 OF 3 
William Wallace Kenny
1 of 3 portraits of William Wallace Kenny
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Share this
William Wallace Kenny
by Bassano Ltd
bromide print, 14 January 1918
Purchased, 1996
Photographs Collection
NPG x85360
Artistback to top
- Bassano Ltd (active 1901-1962), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 42746 portraits.
Placesback to top
- Place made: United Kingdom: England, London (photographer's studio, 25 Old Bond Street , London)
Events of 1918back to top
Current affairs
Despite the suspension of the Suffrage movement during the war, the Government finally agrees to grant women the right to vote as recognition of their vital role in the war effort. However, The Representation of the People Act only extended the franchise to female householders and university graduates over 30. Equal rights to men were not granted until 1928.Art and science
War Poet, Wilfred Owen, is killed in action just a week before the end of the war. His poems, including Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth, tell of the horror of war in the trenches and the tragic loss of a generation of young men who enthusiastically signed up to fight in a war that became seen as futile rather than glorious.International
British representative, Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss, signs the Armistice calling a ceasefire on the 11th November 1918 and ending the war. Germany and Austria loose their empires and become republics. Around the same time a global flu pandemic brakes out - known in England as Spanish Flu - killing 50-100 million people within a year compared to 15 million fatalities from the four years of war.Comments back to top
We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.
If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.
William Skyner
22 March 2019, 14:20
Major General William Wallace Kenny KHS CB MB FRCSI
Born: 11th July 1854 Killeshandra, Co. Cavan, Ireland.
Died: 11th May 1929 (aged 74)
Wife: Katherine Jane Kenny. Born at High Ercall Hall, Shropshire. Died 16th Dec 1928 at Danebury, Acomb, York.
William Wallace Kenny was commissioned as a Surgeon on 5th August 1877 at 23 years of age. He served initially with the Army Hospital Corps as a Surgeon during the Second Afghan War between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan during the period 1877 to 1880.
In 1884 the Army Hospital Corps reverted to its former name of the Medical Staff Corps whilst Surgeon Kenny was serving in the Sudan between 1884 and 1889. For this he was awarded the Egypt Medal. He was also awarded the clasp ‘TOFREK’ for his part in the Battle of Tofrek which was fought on 22nd March 1885, about 5 miles inland from the port of Suakin on the Red Sea coast of Sudan. The Battle of Tofrek was part of the second Suakin expedition, sometimes referred to as the Suakin Field Force and for which Surgeon Kenny also received the Suakin 1885 clasp to the Egypt Medal. He was also awarded the Khedive’s Star by Khedive of Egypt, Tewfik Pasha as a reward for all those British and Indian soldiers who took part in the fighting.
In 1886 He was posted to Malta on garrison duties until 6th August 1887 when he was posted to Colchester, England. On 5th August 1889, he was promoted to Surgeon Major and on 5th August 1897, Surgeon-Major Kenny was promoted to Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel and served in South Africa during the Second Boer War between October 1899 and May 1902 for which he was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal and the clasps for serving in the Cape Colony and the Orange Free State campaigns. After leaving South Africa and in 1905, William was promoted to colonel on 1st April 1904.
By 1898 there were two distinct organisations within the Army Medical Services, the Medical Staff Corps and the Medical Staff (i.e. the officers); Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel Kenny was now part of the latter. These two separate organisations were reorganised into one Corps, the Royal Army Medical Corps, by Royal Warrant on 23rd June 1898. With the formation of the RAMC medical officers were granted the same rank structure as the rest of the British Army.
On 8th June 1908 he was promoted to be Surgeon-General and also appointed as an Honorary Surgeon to the King two days later on 12th June 1908. The post of Surgeon-General dates from 1664; there was also, from 1685, a Physician-General appointed; together, they directed the Army's medical services. These offices lapsed following the establishment of the Army Medical Department in 1810; but in 1874 the title Surgeon-General was reinstated for the highest appointment for Army medical personnel.
On 23rd June 1914, Surgeon General Kenny was appointed as a Knight of Grace in the Grand Priory of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England.
On 14th July 1914, just a couple of weeks before the beginning of the First World War, Surgeon-General Kenny retired. This was the end of his military career having served for 37 years and at this point he was 60 years of age. As he had retired a matter of a couple of weeks before the beginning the war, he was probably recalled almost immediately and deployed to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. At some point during the war, he was promoted to Major General.
Major General Kenny was awarded three medals for his actions during the First World War. These were the 1914 star, the British War Medal and the Allied Victory medal. This particular combination of three medals was awarded to about 350,000 soldiers, largely the members of the British Expeditionary Force.
On 23rd January 1917, he was promoted as a Companion of Order of the Bath.
Later during the war, although a member of the General Staff, Major General Kenny probably played some part in the massive increase in numbers of Royal Army Medical Corps personnel which went from a pre-war total of 9,000, to 13,000 Officers and 154,000 other ranks in 1918.
Major General Kenny survived the war and died on 11th May 1929 aged 74 and is buried in St Stephen’s Churchyard, Acomb, York. His medals are held at the York Castle Museum, York,