Kenneth was the only son of Geoffrey Swann and his wife Florence Mildred Brodie. He was born at East Grinstead. His father who was a banker, was the youngest son of Sir Charles Ernest Schwann 1st Bt. [Swann by Royal Licence 11 December 1913].
Kenneth was educated at Eton and Matriculating in 1934, followed his father to Christ Church. He graduated with a 2nd in history in 1937.
The Swanns lived at Ludwick Corner, Hatfield. Originally built for a Marquess of Salisbury, it was the only house in the area before Welwyn Garden City engulfed it. Later, they moved to The Old Rectory, Bramfield, Hertford.
Whilst up at Oxford, he was an Officer Cadet in the University Contingent and was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant in the 86th Hertfordshire Yeomanry on 4 June 1938.
On 9 January 1942, he married at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, Delmira Marion Kroyer-Kielberg. They were near neighbours. Her father, a philanthropist, and some time Danish Ambassador to the Court of St. James, was Sir Michael Kroyer-Kielburg of Stockgrove Park, Leighton Buzzard They had a son in November 1942 and a daughter, born posthumously, on Christmas Day 1944.
At the end of May 1944, the 86th Yeomanry were under canvas near Romsey prior to landing in France on D-Day. He was the Forward Observation Officer of 342 Battery.
On Monday 19 June, a day of rain and windy weather, he was wounded at Lingevres near Bayeux and died the following day.
He was awarded the Military Cross.
He is buried in the Tilly-Sur-Seulles War Cemetery Plot IV.J.11
After his death, his wife and children lived on her father’s estate at Leighton Buzzard. On 4 January 1947, she married Peter Richard Hampton M.C. On 25 August, she died from diphtheria. She is buried in the churchyard at St Giles and St George Church, Ashtead, Surrey.