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The youngest of nine children of Irishman Michael Henry Kenny (1834-1913) and Mary Moore (1844-1937), William Harold Kenny was born at Guyra, New South Wales in 1887 and went to live at Mt. Kent, in the Nobby district, Queensland, when he was six years old.

Known as Bill, he joined the Queensland Police Force in April 1914 and enlisted for active service when war broke out in August. He went overseas with the 2nd Light Horse Regiment, sailing with the first convoy that left Australia. In Egypt, Kenny was seconded from his regiment for special duty with General Birdwood, being one of six men who functioned as personal bodyguards to the general. He took part in the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and participated in the fighting there until the end of the campaign. He was one of the last Australians to leave the Peninsula, being a member of the demolition party. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the Medaille Militaire (Francais) and was mentioned in dispatches

After Gallipoli, Warrant Officer William Kenny served again in Egypt and then for two years in France. He left France with the remnant of the 1914 enlistment on September 13, 1918 and returned to Australia. 'It took 36 troopships, escorted by five cruisers, to take over the first enlistment,' he said. 'The remnant of that force, which was granted six months' furlough toy Billy Hughes, returned in one troopship, the “Devon,” and she was not crowded, for there were only 820 men.'

In October 1919 he married Christine Agnes Mclellan at Brisbane.

Resuming duty with the Queensland Police, Bill Kenny was put in charge of the Gilbert River police station in the Gulf country. He had one tracker to assist him in patrolling an area of 11,000 square miles, the main work being that of preventing the stealing of stock. Constable Kenny served in the wild area of the Gulf until 1933. He was then transferred to Tewantin, where he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. There followed service at Cloncurry and Mt. Isa, and finally Toowoomba, where he was on duty until November 1942. It was then, while arresting two men, that he had his leg broken, an injury that led to his retirement from the police force with a pension.

When the leg became a little stronger, Bill Kenny joined the Volunteer Defence Corps, becoming Regimental Sergeant Major of the 7th Battalion, and performing instructional duties until the disbanding of the corps in 1944. He then joined the scouting movement; was Scout Master of the. 2nd Toowoomba Troop and was appointed District Commissioner of the Toowoomba district in 1946. About this time, also, he was appointed an inspector of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Being forced to relinquish these activities owing to ill health, Kenny turned to his hobbies of rifle shooting and gardening, which he carried on until quite recently. In 1945 his dahlias won seven championship prizes, 19 firsts and 11 seconds.

He competed for rifle shootings' King's Prize at Enoggera in August 1948. He was among the leaders until the third stage, and he is the only member of the Downs Club to have scored a possible on the new reduced seven-inch bull at 300 yards. In the previous twelve months he put on five scores of 100 or better with the .303, his best being 102 off the rifle.

Bill Kenny said that he had been most impressed during his lifetime by the progress of transport. It had taken him two weeks to travel to the Gilbert River in 1920, when it would take only a couple of hours by aeroplane in the 1940s.

While at Gilbert River he bought a car and took his wife and small son on a trip from, the saltwater of the Gulf to the saltwater of Southern Australia - a journey of 2062 miles, that took 14 days.

During his service in the Gulf country, Bill Kenny had to deal with a substantial number of dangers, such as flooded rivers, bush fires, wild cattle, wild pigs and crocodiles.

His elder sister, Elizabeth Kenny, a bush nurse, served with the Australian Army Nursing Service during World War 1, rising to the rank of Sister in 1917. Following the war she developed an approach to treating poliomyelitis, that was controversial at the time but ultimately gained her international acknowledgement. She spent considerable time in Europe and the USA promoting her clinical methods. Her principles of muscle rehabilitation were to become the foundation of physiotherapy.

Bill Kenny was diagnosed in during 1948 with what he described as a 'tired heart', and he had not been expected to live past Christmas. 'I am not afraid to die,' he said, 'I have prepared for it here and, I think, with God, I am looking at it as I would a great.' His sister, Elizabeth made a rushed return from the USA in early 1949 to visit him.

Warrant Officer William Harold Kenny DCM died at Toowoomba, Queensland on 15 April 1949.

References:

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article185823308