KP/ROK - Rowland Kenney
Reference code
KP/ROK
Level of description
Series
Title
Rowland Kenney
Personal name
Kenney, Rowland, 1882-1961
Scope and content
There are no contents in this series. This is a biographical description only.
Born in Saddleworth, Oldham on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border. He left school and went to work at age 10, moving from one job in manual labour to the next, including work in a cotton factory, tunnelling for a railway, manoeuvring railway wagons as a capstanhand, tending horses and cobbling shoes. He often slept rough and couldn’t afford to eat. Yet through it all, he was enormously intellectually curious and an avid reader, with a special love of poetry.
His brother Reggie helped him get his first “coat and tie” job which allowed him sufficient free time to engage in politics as an ardent socialist and he soon got involved with the emerging Independent Labour Party (ILP.) He quickly got to know the leaders of the ILP and moved to London in 1910 where he managed the Publications Department of the 'Socialist Review' and then ran the ILP’s Literature Department working closely with Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snowden and Keir Hardie. He went on to a number of jobs in journalism and, in 1912, became the first editor of the “Daily Herald.”
In London, Rowland met Asta Ingrid Brockdorff (1883-1947), a Norwegian pharmacist and a talented artist, whom he married in 1911. They spent some time in Norway, but returned to England where Rowland had better job prospects in journalism. In 1916, Rowland’s knowledge of Norway and his background in journalism provided an entree for him into the British Department of Information which sent him to the British Legation in Norway as Press Officer. Working undercover as a Reuters correspondent, he secretly steered negotiations between the Norwegian press, politicians, Reuters and the Foreign Office to shift the influential Norwegian Telegrambureau away from its ties to the German news bureau, Wolffs, to become a new, Britain-friendly bureau.
After the war, as Assistant Commissioner to Poland, he collected material on the Polish left wing for the Versailles Conference and briefed Arthur James Balfour. He went on to work for the Political Intelligence Department and the News Department of the Foreign Office, where he was head of the Cultural Section. Little is known about his work in the interwar years, although he probably remained instrumental in propaganda and intelligence affairs and his private papers indicate that he played a key role in the establishment and early years of The British Council.
At the start of the Second World War, Rowland returned to Norway as Press Attaché, but was forced to flee Oslo when the Germans invaded in April 1940. From Åndalsnes, on the West coast of Norway, he immediately commenced activities as Intelligence Officer, in co-operation with Captain Frank Foley, sending information about military and naval movements, bombing raids and other matters. Back in London, he became Director of the Northern Section of the Foreign Division of the Ministry of Information (MOI) but, in 1941, he returned to the Foreign Office and was seconded to the Norwegian Government in Exile as Honorary Adviser. In 1942, King Haakon VII of Norway awarded him the rank of Knight, First Class, of the Order of St. Olav and, in 1946, King George VI honoured him with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE.)
Rowland was the author of several books: 'Men and Rails', T. Fisher Unwin, 1913; 'A Pedlar’s Pack', Jonathan Cape, 1923; 'Westering' (his autobiography), J.M. Dent and Sons, 1939; and 'The Northern Tangle', J.M. Dent and Sons, 1946. He also published short stories and, together with his wife, translated books from Norwegian into English.
Rowland Kenney’s papers are held in the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge University. Based on those papers, Paul M.H. Buvarp wrote an MA thesis, 'Newsagent: How the British Foreign Office shaped the founding of the Norwegian Telegram bureau in the First World War' (2012) and a PhD thesis, 'Rowland Kenney and British Propaganda in Norway: 1916-1942' (2016). Rowland and Asta lived in Haslemere, Surrey but, after Asta’s death, Rowland moved to London, living here for the rest of his life. Rowland and Asta had one child, Kit Kenney (1913-1988), a British diplomat who, like his father, was an expert on Scandinavia; two grandchildren, Asta-Maria Kenney (1947- ) of Washington, DC, USA, and Timothy R.F. Kenney (1949-2011) of Hedouville, France, and one great-granddaughter, Naomi Kenney (1986- ) of Matour, France.
Biographical details of Rowland Kenney prepared by Asta-Maria Kenney, Washington, DC, 2/17.
Born in Saddleworth, Oldham on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border. He left school and went to work at age 10, moving from one job in manual labour to the next, including work in a cotton factory, tunnelling for a railway, manoeuvring railway wagons as a capstanhand, tending horses and cobbling shoes. He often slept rough and couldn’t afford to eat. Yet through it all, he was enormously intellectually curious and an avid reader, with a special love of poetry.
His brother Reggie helped him get his first “coat and tie” job which allowed him sufficient free time to engage in politics as an ardent socialist and he soon got involved with the emerging Independent Labour Party (ILP.) He quickly got to know the leaders of the ILP and moved to London in 1910 where he managed the Publications Department of the 'Socialist Review' and then ran the ILP’s Literature Department working closely with Ramsay MacDonald, Philip Snowden and Keir Hardie. He went on to a number of jobs in journalism and, in 1912, became the first editor of the “Daily Herald.”
In London, Rowland met Asta Ingrid Brockdorff (1883-1947), a Norwegian pharmacist and a talented artist, whom he married in 1911. They spent some time in Norway, but returned to England where Rowland had better job prospects in journalism. In 1916, Rowland’s knowledge of Norway and his background in journalism provided an entree for him into the British Department of Information which sent him to the British Legation in Norway as Press Officer. Working undercover as a Reuters correspondent, he secretly steered negotiations between the Norwegian press, politicians, Reuters and the Foreign Office to shift the influential Norwegian Telegrambureau away from its ties to the German news bureau, Wolffs, to become a new, Britain-friendly bureau.
After the war, as Assistant Commissioner to Poland, he collected material on the Polish left wing for the Versailles Conference and briefed Arthur James Balfour. He went on to work for the Political Intelligence Department and the News Department of the Foreign Office, where he was head of the Cultural Section. Little is known about his work in the interwar years, although he probably remained instrumental in propaganda and intelligence affairs and his private papers indicate that he played a key role in the establishment and early years of The British Council.
At the start of the Second World War, Rowland returned to Norway as Press Attaché, but was forced to flee Oslo when the Germans invaded in April 1940. From Åndalsnes, on the West coast of Norway, he immediately commenced activities as Intelligence Officer, in co-operation with Captain Frank Foley, sending information about military and naval movements, bombing raids and other matters. Back in London, he became Director of the Northern Section of the Foreign Division of the Ministry of Information (MOI) but, in 1941, he returned to the Foreign Office and was seconded to the Norwegian Government in Exile as Honorary Adviser. In 1942, King Haakon VII of Norway awarded him the rank of Knight, First Class, of the Order of St. Olav and, in 1946, King George VI honoured him with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE.)
Rowland was the author of several books: 'Men and Rails', T. Fisher Unwin, 1913; 'A Pedlar’s Pack', Jonathan Cape, 1923; 'Westering' (his autobiography), J.M. Dent and Sons, 1939; and 'The Northern Tangle', J.M. Dent and Sons, 1946. He also published short stories and, together with his wife, translated books from Norwegian into English.
Rowland Kenney’s papers are held in the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge University. Based on those papers, Paul M.H. Buvarp wrote an MA thesis, 'Newsagent: How the British Foreign Office shaped the founding of the Norwegian Telegram bureau in the First World War' (2012) and a PhD thesis, 'Rowland Kenney and British Propaganda in Norway: 1916-1942' (2016). Rowland and Asta lived in Haslemere, Surrey but, after Asta’s death, Rowland moved to London, living here for the rest of his life. Rowland and Asta had one child, Kit Kenney (1913-1988), a British diplomat who, like his father, was an expert on Scandinavia; two grandchildren, Asta-Maria Kenney (1947- ) of Washington, DC, USA, and Timothy R.F. Kenney (1949-2011) of Hedouville, France, and one great-granddaughter, Naomi Kenney (1986- ) of Matour, France.
Biographical details of Rowland Kenney prepared by Asta-Maria Kenney, Washington, DC, 2/17.
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KP - The Kenney Papers
- KP/ROK - Rowland Kenney