Born c.1828.
Enlisted at Dublin on the 6th of February 1847.
Age: 19.
Height: 5' 9".
Trade: None shown.
From Private to Corporal, 26th of November 1852.
Reduced to Pte., "By order of the Colonel, 17th Lancers. Major General Taylor", on the 15th of February 1853.
At Scutari from the 13th of January — 11th of May 1855.
Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.
The musters for July-September of 1858 show him as being "On Field Service" during the whole of this period.
Served in the field at Rajghur and Mungrowlee with Captain William Gordon.
On passage to England from the 2nd of January and joined the Depot on the 29th of April 1861
Discharged "time expired", from Maidstone on the 4th of May 1861.
Conduct: "good".
In possession of one Good Conduct badge.
The Mutiny medal roll in the India Office has the letter "A" by his name and the word "Dead", but that in the PRO shows him as "Royal Horse Guards.". Under the date of discharge in the muster rolls is written in red ink, — "Now in the Royal Horse Guards."
He re-enlisted into the Royal Horse Guards at London on the 9th of May 1861. Regimental No. 180.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Mutiny medal without clasp.
W0/25/3261 shows him as "Died, 25th July 1862." The muster rolls for the period are missing.
The GRO records show a "William McKenna" as dying in the Westminster District during the July-September quarter of 1862. No age at death is shown, this being before it was recorded.
WM is mentioned by William Butler in his "Memoirs" for an incident during the Mutiny:
"On the day following the execution of Tanti Tope, I and Private McKenna went in search of some loot, and having got some were coming back when we found two of Tanti's subadars and two others: they would not come in as prisoners, so we had to have a sharp round with them and killed two. leaving one wounded...."