DEATH OF ENSIGN McKENNA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9166, 9 June 1908, Page 4

DEATH OF ENSIGN McKENNA.

Palmerston N., June 8. Ensign McKenna, V.G., formerly atacionmaster at Palmerston North, Wanganui. Gore, Greatford and Halnombe, died here to-day. Ensign McKenna gained his V. O. on the 7th September,' 1863, for oonspicious gallantry an Cameron Town with the 65th. .He was 79 years of age, and retired from the railway service in 1903.

The official story of how he won the Victoria Cross reads: —“OolorSorgt. McKenna (now Ensign)| received his Cross for gallant conduct at the engagement near Cameron Town, N.Z“ on 7th September, 18(53, after both his officers, Captain Swift and Lieut. Butler, had been shot, in charging through the position of an enemy heavily outnumbering him, and drawing off his small force consisting of two sergeants, one bugler and 35 men through a broken and rugged country with a loss of but one man killed and another missing. ” Lieut.-General Cameron, C. 8., commanding Her Majesty’s forces in the colour, reports; —“In ColorSergt. McKenna, 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.” Another account, the story of a survivor published recently in the Royal Magazine, tells how “this splendid non-commissioned officer, Edward McKenna,” when his officers were killed and his men in confusion,, “dashed to the front and with all. the valour and resourcefulness of a born leader, hurled us against thestrongest part of the enemy’s position and, inspired by our leader’s example, we fought our way from the spot where we had been so sud« denly ambushed and our leaders annihilated. . . . Ido not think the Cross was ever more deservedly given.” Ensign McKenna leaves six sons, of whom, Mr Kenneth McKenna, is in the railway service here, and two married daughters, Mrs Albert Travers, of Wellington, and Mrs JTymins, of Wanganui.