Kenneth Claiborne Royall

Kenneth Caliborne Royall was born on July 24, 1894, in Goldsboro, North Carolina, the son of Clara Howard Jones and George Pender Royall. He graduated from Episcopal High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and Harvard Law School before serving in World War I.[1] He then practiced law and was elected to the North Carolina Senate as a Democrat. At the beginning of World War II, he became a colonel in the U.S. Army.

On August 18, 1917, Royall married the former Margaret Pierce Best, with whom he had three children: Kenneth Claiborne Jr., Margaret, and George Pender Royall.

According to a 2006 newspaper column by Jack Betts, eight German agents bent on mayhem came ashore on Long Island in 1942 but were soon caught and ordered to stand trial in a secret military tribunal. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Royall to defend them, but, wanting a swift conclusion to the process, with the Germans executed as soon as possible, ordered Royall to avoid civilian courts. Royall wrote to Roosevelt that he thought that the president had no authority to convene a secret court to try his clients, and asked him to change his order. The president refused, and Royall appealed to the U.S. District Court, arguing the secret tribunal was unconstitutional.

The court rejected that argument and so Royall and other lawyers in his office appealed to the Supreme Court, which rejected Royall's argument in a brief announcement in July 1942 and upheld the right of the president to appoint a secret tribunal. However, Royall had succeeded in getting civilian court review of the tribunals' constitutionality despite the president's predilection for secrecy.

The Supreme Court published a more detailed opinion in October, saying, "Constitutional safeguards for the protection of all who are charged with offense are not to be disregarded." By then, six of Royall's clients were dead. They had been tried, convicted, and executed in August, days after the Supreme Court's brief announcement upholding Roosevelt's tribunals. Two who turned themselves in and betrayed the others were sent to prison. Royall later said he believed his defense of the Germans was his most important work in a long and illustrious career. He was promoted to brigadier general.

Royall served as Undersecretary of War from November 9, 1945 until July 18, 1947.[2] President Harry S. Truman named him Secretary of War in 1947. He became the first Secretary of the Army two months later.

In 1948, Royall refused to make public the documentary “Nuremberg: Its Lesson For Today” [3] because "due to policy changes, ‘Nuremberg’ was not in the interest of the ‘army or the nation’ and would not be released to the general public".[4]

Royall was forced into retirement in April 1949 for continuing to refuse to desegregate the Army, nearly a year after President Truman promulgated Executive Order 9981.[5]

In December 1949, Royall became a partner at the prestigious New York City law firm of Dwight, Harris, Koegel and Caskey, becoming the firm's head in 1958. The firm was later renamed Rogers & Wells, and it was subsequently known as Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells after its merger with the British firm Clifford Chance.

Royall died in Durham, North Carolina, on May 25, 1971, aged 76. He was buried at Willow Dale Cemetery in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

His son Kenneth C. Royall Jr. (1918–1999) served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1967 to 1972 and the North Carolina Senate from 1973 to 1992.

• Charlotte Observer: Royall was also willing to stand for rule of law
• Official Army biography and portrait
• History News Network article on Nazi saboteur case
• Kenneth Claiborne Royall at Find a Grave
• A film clip "Longines Chronoscope with Gen. Kenneth C. Royall (November 26, 1951)" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
• Newspaper clippings about Kenneth Claiborne Royall in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
• Generals of World War II