Kenneth Claiborne Royall Sr. (July 24, 1894 – May 25, 1971) was a U.S. Army general and the last man to hold the office of Secretary of War, which was abolished in 1947.

Royall served as the first Secretary of the Army from 1947 to 1949, until he was compelled into retirement for refusing to comply with President Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9981 for the racial desegregation of the military forces of the United States.

According to a 2006 newspaper column by Jack Betts, eight German agents bent on mayhem came ashore on Long Island in 1942 but were soon caught and ordered to stand trial in a secret military tribunal.

Royall wrote to Roosevelt that he thought the president had no authority to convene a secret court to try his clients, and asked him to change his order.

[3][4] Royall was forced into retirement in April 1949 for continuing to refuse to desegregate the Army, nearly a year after President Truman promulgated Executive Order 9981.