Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Second Lieutenant J. R. F. W. Penney, Lancashire Fusiliers - awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal

1914 Star (599 Pte. J. R. Penney, 2 Lan. Fus.) official correction to last three letters of surname; British War and Victory Medals (2 Lieut. J. R. Penney) edge bruising, very fine (3) £300-350

D.C.M. London Gazette 14 January 1916; citation 11 March 1916 ‘2/599 Serjeant J. R. F. W. Penny (sic), 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers.’ ‘For conspicuous bravery and devotion when in charge of bomb-throwers, and in a sap occupied by the enemy as well as ourselves. A continuous bombing fight was carried on during four days. All the bomb-throwers whom he originally took in were either killed or wounded.’

John Richard F. W. Penney was born in Jersey on 24 April 1890. As a Private in the 2nd Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, he entered France on 22 August 1914. As a Sergeant he was awarded the D.C.M. for a desperate fight between British and German bombing parties on 7 July 1915. It is recorded in The History of the Lancashire Fusiliers, by Major-General Latter:

‘Again and again during the battalion’s four days in the line, the enemy sought to bomb our troops out of it. Again and again they were thrown back with the aid of the newly issued Mills bomb, in whose use no instruction had been given, so that as many casualties were caused by its faulty handling as by the enemy. Serjeant J. R. F. W. Penny (sic), Serjeant A. Weatherall and Private J. Walker, under the leadership of Lieutenant G. C. Martin, particularly distinguished themselves by their gallantry and by their persistence in organizing fresh parties of bombers as new detachments, with more bombs, were sent up to replace casualties. ...’

Penney received a commission in the Lancashire Fusiliers on 3 May 1918. However as a Lieutenant he was dismissed from the Service by sentence of a General Court Martial, 3 March 1920, the charge being ‘Conduct to the prejudice of good order and Military Discipline in that he, on the 10th Day of January, 1920, was in the Bar of the Hippodrome Theatre Aldershot, a public place, consorting and drinking with a non-commissioned officer and private soldiers.’ He subsequently moved to Rochdale.

With copied gazette extracts and other research including a rather ‘cluttered’ medal index card listing corrections, forfeitures, re-issues etc.