Kenny, Miss Nell

Nell Kenny of Sydney, Australia. Born 1887
Her father, John Robert Kenny, was born in Boston, Mass., USA, but left the city in the 1870s to settle in Australia.

She arrived in London on 13/4/1914 on the White Star’s ‘Ceramic’ with a 6-year-old Norman Kenny, no relationship given. She went straight to Brighton where she was trained by Billy Kellingley. She apparently had two starts organised, both of which were canceled due to bad weather, but no details are recorded. War broke out 4th August and Channel swimming prohibited and on 28/8/1914 she sailed for New York on the Mauretania out of Liverpool, mainly to challenge Rose Pitonof. She was accompanied by Norman Kenny age 8 and the Brighton diver and swimmer Walter Tong aged 21.

She became the first woman to swim the 22 miles Battery to Sandy Hook in New York on 22nd September. In December 1914 she was arrested for trying to dive off Brooklyn Bridge, a movie stunt she had been hired for by Universal Animated Weekly. She sailed for home in Australia and into obscurity

Miss Nell Kenny, of Sydney, the Australian champion lady swimmer, has arranged to attempt to swim across tho English Channel from Dover to Calais this summer.
The Straits Times, 2 May 1914

In a very rough sea Miss Nell Kenny, the Australian long-distance swimming champion, who is training at Brighton for a Channel swim, swam from the Palace Pier, Brighton, to Shoreham Harbour, a distance five miles, in 2h 23min.
29 June 1914 – Western Mail

Nell Kenny, Called World’s Champion by English Writers, Came to Challenge Rose Pitonof and to Try to Find Some of Her Father’s Relatives.

Both Miss Kenny and Walter Tong the British fancy diving and all-round life-savlng champion, who is accompanylng her on her trip to America, are confident that she can negotiate the Channel, but they proclaim it to be the most difficult swim in the world. The distinguished open-sea swimmer, who has twice been forced to postpone attempts to swim the English Channel, came to Boston for the express purpose of issuing a challenge to swim any woman in the world for a purse, directed to Miss Rose Pitonof of Dorchester in particular.

Miss Kenny’s other mission was to locate some of her relatives in this city, and she called at the Globe office in the hope that she would be able to learn something of the identity and whereabouts of them. Her father, John Robert Kenny, was born in Boston, but left this city to settle in Australia. That was 40 years ago, and all trace of his relatives has been lost by the family…the “Queen of the Surf” came here directly from New York in the expectation thnt she would be able to accomplish some notable swimming feat to prove to Americans that she is all that has been claimed for her. Miss Kenny arrived in New York last Thursday night on the Mauretania. Nell Kenny had heard much of the famous Boston Light course, both in Australia and in England, and she stated last night that it was her purpose to attempt to swim over the noted course, not knowing that the difficult feat had already been accomplished by three Boston girls, Rose Pitonof, Alsie Ackroyd (Mrs O Rourke). and Marion Gibson. She likewise was not aware that Sam Richards had already performed the unequaled feat of swimming to Boston Light and return, Which she hoped she would be able to accomplish. She was somewhat surprised, too, to learn that the long-distance swimming in Boston Harbor has closed because of cold and rough water and adverse winds, and in as much as she would require at least a week or 10 days to regain the physical condition which she enjoyed when she left Brighton, Eng, after the British Government forbade swimming in the Channel, she reluctantly abandoned all hope of proving her prowess in Boston waters. “But since I am here.” said Miss Kenny, “I want to challenge any woman swimmer in America or the world, to a Johnson’s Hard Time.

She decided to attempt to swim from the Battery to Sandy Hook on Sunday, Sept 20. No woman has ever completed that course, although Miss Pitnof has thrice undertaken the swim. Nell Kenny earned the sobriquet “Queen of the Surf” in her native Australia because of her proficiency In “shooting the breakers,” a dangerous pastime of the expert swimmers of Australia. The feat consists of swimming out to the line of powerful breakers and then riding or diving through them and perfoming tricks in the heavy surf.

On June 26 she broke Lily Smith’s English five-mile open water record by swimming from the Palace Pier, Brighton, into Shoreham harbor in 2h 23m.; Miss Smith’s record from West Pier to Shoreham was 2h 10m, but Miss Kenny, in starting from the Palace Pier and swimming up into the harbor of Shoreham swam more than three-quarters of a mile further, and was credited with the English record.
The Boston Globe – September 9 1914

SWIMMING. AN AUSTRALIAN FEAT.
New York, Sept. 22.
Miss Nell Kenny, an Australian, swam yesterday from the Battery to Sandy Hook, a distance of 22 miles, in 9hr. 25min. She was the first woman to accomplish the feat.
The West Australian 23 Sep 1914