George Kenner

George Kenner (1 November 1888 – 10 July 1971) was a German artist. He made 110 paintings and drawings during the First World War while interned as a German civilian internee in Great Britain and the Isle of Man.

Birth and background Kenner was born Georg Kennerknecht on November 1, 1888, in the small town of Schwabsoien, near the Alps in the Weilheim-Schongau district of Bavaria, Germany. He went to art school in Germany. He moved to London in 1910. He worked at and co-owned the small "process artist" company Waddington & Kennerknecht at 73 Farringdon Street with a British partner. He also attended night school at London's Lambeth School of Art to study airbrush techniques. He was registered as an "alien enemy" on August 23, 1914, then abruptly interned five days after the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915.

Being a trained commercial artist by profession, and wanting to stay in practice with his work, he negotiated with the PoW camp authorities to be allowed to create what became the most extensive collection of World War I internment scenes known. near Frimley, in Surrey. The camp grew to hold 2,000 civilian prisoners, but was considered unsuitable for the approaching winter. On September 29, 1915, Kenner was sent to Alexandra Palace in North London. 3,000 internees were held in three sections. Conditions were better here. In June 1916, Kenner was sent to the Knockaloe internment camp near Peel on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea. This camp held 30,000 civilian prisoners for the remainder of the war and beyond. He was finally sent back to Germany in a prisoner exchange in March 1919, four months after the Armistice.

Three other British museums acquired the art that Kenner produced in their particular areas during the war: the Surrey Heath Museum, in Camberley, the Manx National Heritage Museum in Douglas, Isle of Man, and Bruce Castle Museum in London.

Several of Kenner's paintings from his Frith Hill PoW camp period were used in the book Reflections – A Heatherside Miscellany by Nick McCormick, published in June 2006.

Several other paintings from Kenner's Alexandra Palace PoW period were used in the book Ally Pally Prison Camp by Maggie Butt, published in June 2011.

Gallery