McKenna was 36 years old, and a colour sergeant in the 65th Regiment of Foot (later the 1st Bn, York and Lancaster Regiment) during the Invasion of Waikato, when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC: For gallant conduct at the engagement near Cameron-town, New Zealand, on the 7th.

of September, 1863, after both his Officers, Captain Swift and Lieutenant Butler, had been shot, in charging through the position of an enemy heavily outnumbering him, and drawing off his small force, consisting of two Serjeants, one bugler, and thirty-five men, through a broken and rugged country, with the loss of but one man killed, and another missing.

In October 1865 his regiment was recalled to England, but Edward had grown attached to the colony, he sold his commission and remained.

He joined the New Zealand Railways as a clerk and soon rose to be Station Master at Kaiapoi, Ashburton, Invercargill, Gore, Greatford, Halcombe and in the early 1880s Palmerston North.

[3] He is buried at Terrace End Cemetery, Palmerston North in Presbyterian Block II, plot 65.