Rowland Kenney

Kenney was born on 28 December 1882 in Springhead, West Riding of Yorkshire (now part of Oldham).[1] He was a son of Ann (née Wood, 1852–1905) and Horatio Nelson Kenney (1849–1912), a cotton-mill worker. He was one of twelve children, eleven of whom survived infancy.[2] His sisters included the suffragettes Annie Kenney, Nell Kenney, Kitty Kenney, Jenny Kenney and Jessie Kenney.[3] Their parents encouraged reading, debating, and socialism.[4]

In his youth and early adulthood, Kenney worked a series of manual labour jobs, before taking up work as a salesman, and joining the Shop Assistants' Union and the Independent Labour Party.[1] His work in various socialist organisations led him to become a journalist and later an editor of the Daily Herald, and briefly, a publisher of Vanity Fair.[1]

In 1911 Kenney married Dano-Norwegian Asta Ingrid Brockdorff (1883–1947) and spent some time in Norway before the onset of the First World War.[1]

In 1916, with war raging in Europe, Kenney was recommended to the Foreign Office as an agent who could assess the propaganda situation in Norway.[5] Having drawn up a report, Kenney was subsequently offered the position as press attaché in the British Legation (now Embassy) in Norway's capital Christiania (now Oslo).[5] As press attaché, Kenney made contact with Norwegian editors and publishers and under cover of being a Reuters correspondent, supplied Norwegian media with British propaganda.[5] He was also instrumental in reshaping the Norwegian Telegram Bureau (NTB) to separate it from its German influence.[6]

After World War I, Kenney, still working for the Foreign Office, travelled to Poland to assess the political situation and reported back to the British delegation at Versailles.[1] Returning from Versailles to England in 1918, Kenney suffered a plane crash and survived with lasting injuries.[1] He continued in the inter-war years to work for various government institutions tied to the Foreign Office.[5] In particular, he was a key player in the establishment of the British Council.[5] During this time, he wrote his autobiography Westering, published in 1939.[1]

As World War II loomed in 1939, Kenney was sent back to Oslo, again as press attaché.[5] His mission was the same as in World War I, but it was cut short by the German invasion of Norway in April 1940.[5] Fleeing Oslo, Kenney found himself in a small contingent of British diplomats and intelligence officers, including Frank Foley and Margaret Reid.[5] They made their escape to Åndalsnes.[5] During this time, Kenney connected with Norwegian officials seeking to establish Allied news services in Norway, as well as the Norwegian officer Martin Linge, who would later become a leader in the Norwegian resistance movement.[5] Evacuated to Great Britain, Kenney continued to work to provide Norway and the Scandinavian countries with Allied news and propaganda.[5] In 1942, he was seconded to the Norwegian government-in-exile and was later awarded the Order of St Olav for his work.[5]

After the war, Kenney returned briefly to Norway as a diplomat,[5] and published The Northern Tangle, a history of Scandinavia.[7] He died in 1961, survived by his only child, Kit Kenney (1913–1988).[5]