Database: John Pennington

Picture and following information courtesy of John's grandson, David Pennington

My grandfather enlisted on the 21st March 1897 at Manchester into the Grenadier Guards.
He served in South Africa and was awarded the Queens South Africa medal with bars for Wittergen, Transvaal and Cape Colony, also the Kings South Africa medal with bars for 1901 and 1902.
At the outbreak of WW1 he was a Colour Sergeant in the Grenadier Guards and on the 9th October 1914 he was Gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
He landed in France on the 23rd November and the War diary of the 2nd Battalion records that he joined them on the 2nd December 1914 near Fleurbaix.
He fought at Neuve Chapelle, Festubert and Givenchy.
He was mentioned in despatches, by Sir John French, on 30th November 1915.
He was an acting Captain from Feb 1915 until July 1915 and was killed on the first day of the battle of Loos, 25th September 1915.
His name is recorded as Lieutenant J Pennington on panel 22 of Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos, but his three WW1 medals were awarded to him and engraved with the rank of Captain.
He left a wife Lilian, son John and daughter Marjorie.