After serving in the 4th (
Militia) Battalion of the
Durham Light Infantry, into which he was commissioned as a
lieutenant in December 1882, Kenna, having resigned his commission in August 1884, attended the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was re-commissioned into the
British Army as a
lieutenant in the
2nd West India Regiment on 25 August 1886, In 1887 he transferred once again, this time to the
21st Lancers (Empress of India's), and was promoted to
captain on 12 June 1895. In that year he also received the Royal Humane Society's Certificate for saving a man from the river Liffey.
VC action He was 36 years old, serving as a captain in the 21st Lancers during the
Mahdist War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC: :On 2 September 1898, at the
Battle of Omdurman,
Sudan, when a major of the 21st Lancers was in danger, as his horse had been shot in the charge, Captain Kenna took the major up on his own horse, to a place of safety. After the charge Captain Kenna returned to help
Lieutenant De Montmorency who was trying to recover the body of an officer who had been killed. He later served in the
Second Boer War in
South Africa 1899–1900, and, after being made an assistant provost marshal of Lieutenant General
Sir John French's Cavalry Division in October 1899, was made a
brigade major with the
4th Cavalry Brigade in July 1900, and promoted to
brevet major on 29 November. For his service during the war, he was appointed a Companion of the
Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the South Africa Honours List published on 26 June 1902. Following the end of the war that month Kenna returned to the United Kingdom in the
RMS Dunottar Castle, which arrived at
Southampton in July 1902. He received the substantive rank of major on 7 September, on his appointment to lead a mounted infantry flying column in
Somaliland. He arrived there to take part in the 1903
Somaliland campaign, which ended in British retreat. He was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in September 1904 and in October 1905 he became
brigade major of the
1st Cavalry Brigade at Aldershot. He held this post until September 1906, when he was made a lieutenant colonel and assumed command of the 21st Lancers. In December he was promoted to brevet colonel and appointed an
aide-de-camp to King
Edward VII. In September 1910 he relinquished command of his regiment and was placed on
half-pay and promoted to colonel on the same date. In April 1912 he was appointed to command the Notts and Derby (Yeomanry) Mounted Brigade and on the outbreak of war over two years later was appointed brigadier-general. ==Olympics==