Edward McKenna

He assumed command and brought his outnumbered men to safety

Edward Mc Kenna was born at Leeds on 15 February 1827. A wire worker before enlistment, he joined the 65th Regiment in January 1845 and served in Australia and New Zealand. He married Elizabeth Gordon at Wellington in 1853. Promoted through the non-commissioned ranks, he became a colour sergeant in May 1863.

On 7 September 1863, near Camerontown and Alexandra Redoubt, Captain Richard Swift was killed and Lieutenant Butler was wounded during fighting with Maori forces. Mc Kenna assumed command of the surviving detachment. Despite the force opposing him, he led a charge and then brought his men through difficult country to safety. The Victoria Cross recognised his coolness, courage and judgment after both officers had been disabled. He was wounded during the action.

Mc Kenna was commissioned ensign the following day. General Duncan Cameron presented his Victoria Cross at Te Awamutu in June 1864. He retired from the Army in September 1865 after more than twenty years of service and settled in New Zealand.

In 1867 he joined the New Zealand railways. He worked as stationmaster at Palmerston North, Wanganui, Gore and other stations before retiring in 1903. He died at Palmerston North on 8 June 1908 and was buried in Terrace End Cemetery. His military awards comprise the Victoria Cross and New Zealand Medal.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For gallant conduct at the engagement near Cameron-town, New Zealand, on the 7th of September, 1863, after both his officers, Captain Swift and Lieutenant Butler, had been shot, in charging through the position of an enemy heavily outnumbering him, and drawing off his small force, consisting of two serjeants, one bugler, and thirty-five men, through a broken and rugged country, with the loss of but one man killed, and another missing. Lieutenant-General Cameron, C.B., Commanding Her Majesty’s Forces in that colony, reports that, in Colour- Serjeant MacKenna, the detachment found a Commander whose coolness, intrepidity, and judgment, justified the confidence placed in him by the soldiers brought so suddenly under his command.

The London Gazette of 19 January 1864, Numb. 22809, p. 261