roughdiamond Posted 27 May , 2010 Share Posted 27 May , 2010 Still reading "Sapper Martin" and was intrigued by the following paragraph: - "General Towsey (122nd Bde, 41st Div) is on leave. the acting Brigadier is Colonel Pennell of the 18th KRRC who at the beginning of the War was a Cpl in the Regular Army." According to his MIC below he was a L/Sgt, anyone know anything about him and do you know of any others raised from the ranks who made it to Bn CO? http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...p;resultcount=1 Also found this one, could be the same man maybe? http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...p;resultcount=9 Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rflory Posted 27 May , 2010 Share Posted 27 May , 2010 I think there are more of these than you might realize. Of course the most famous is Field Marshall Sir W. R. Robertson who spent 10 years and 225 days in the ranks. Lt-Col Robert Pennell, DSO (the 1920 Army List does not show him as ever being a Brigadier) served in the ranks for 10 years and 186 days and as a Warrant Officer, Class 1 for 88 days. At the end of the war he was a substantive Lieutenant and Temporary Lieutenant Colonel. He rose from 2nd Lieutenant to Temp. Lieutenant Colonel in two years and two months. Dick Flory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roughdiamond Posted 27 May , 2010 Author Share Posted 27 May , 2010 Cheers Dick I was thinking more about men who'd risen from the ranks to Lt Col over the course of WW1, rather than a full career. Reading the paragraph, he was only commanding the Bde while General Towsey was on holiday, so that wouldn't qualify him as "Temporary Brigadier" in the Army list. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 27 May , 2010 Share Posted 27 May , 2010 I did some digging on Pennell a while back. Here are some of his LG entries ... 2Lt, T/Major acting Lt.Col. while commanding 18/KRRC (publ 30 Nov 1917) Promotion to Lieutenant (publ 13 Nov 1917) DSO (publ 25 Sep 1917, citation 08 Jan 1918) Bar to the DSO (publ 16 Nov 1917, citation 19 Mar 1918) An amazing man. Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rflory Posted 28 May , 2010 Share Posted 28 May , 2010 Lieut. Col. Frank Sulis Evans, DSO enlisted as a Private in the 3rd Hussars during the second week of the war. On 29 June 1915 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery; promoted to Temp. Captain on 30 June 1915; and to Temp. Major, RFA on 31 March 1916. On 24 June 1916 (five days less than a year after he was commissioned) he was appointed an Acting Lieutenant Colonel, RFA and given command of the 11th Divisional Ammunition Column (equivalent to command of an infantry battalion). Has to be one of the most rapid advancement from 2nd Lieutenant to Lieutenant Colonel. Dick Flory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie962 Posted 29 February , 2016 Share Posted 29 February , 2016 An old thread but I was looking at the History of the 12th Bermondsey Bn East Surrey Regt and came across Pennell. He was acting CO of 12th Bn ES for just over 2 weeks whilst Col Knapp was on leave. 19/7/17-5/8/17. 12th ES and 18 KRRC were same Bde. During this brief period he managed to gain the respect of the battalion and won his first DSO whilst leading them. Here are some extracts from Hist of 12 ES by Aston/Duggan; (not sure about the MC though) And this from the KRRC Chronicle 1918 Interesting man. Further mentions of Pennell appear in the 12th ES history. There is also a photograph of him. There is also a note of a painting of him in Military Knight of Windsor uniform at the National Portrait Gallery Charlie edit date corrected, thanks Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 1 March , 2016 Share Posted 1 March , 2016 We've recently posted a picture of Richard Pennell at Gidea Hall in Summer 1915 here and name key here. Pennell is third from right in the second row back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 1 March , 2016 Share Posted 1 March , 2016 6224 L.-Sjt. R. Pennell is recorded on the Casualty List in the 1914 KRRC Chronicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie962 Posted 3 March , 2016 Share Posted 3 March , 2016 He was also affectionately referred to as "tin tummy" for the metal plate referred to above (post 6) I gather also that he enlisted, was bought out by his folks, re-enlisted and refused to let his folks buy him out again. He also refused any sort of promotion for a long time. It seems to have taken the war to make him change his mind. Interesting to see his service file; L/Cpl to acting Brigade Commander in 4 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 4 March , 2016 Share Posted 4 March , 2016 An old thread but I was looking at the History of the 12th Bermondsey Bn East Surrey Regt and came across Pennell. He was acting CO of 12th Bn ES for just over 2 weeks whilst Col Knapp was on leave. 19/8/17-5/8/17. 12th ES and 18 KRRC were same Bde. During this brief period he managed to gain the respect of the battalion and won his first DSO whilst leading them. Charlie Minor correction: Pennell was acting CO of 12/ES from 19 Jul to 05 Aug 1917. Excellent ES war diary site here: 12th East Surrey war diary July 1917 - ditto - August 1917 Further mentions of Pennell appear in the 12th ES history. There is also a photograph of him. There is also a note of a painting of him in Military Knight of Windsor uniform at the National Portrait Gallery Charlie I'd really love to see this photo Charlie Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 4 March , 2016 Share Posted 4 March , 2016 (edited) Nice studio portrait of Richard Pennell as a Lt.-Col. with wound stripes and medal ribbons up, alongside a detail of Pennell as 2/Lt (Edit: or more probably RSM - see a few posts below) in William Bremner's 18/KRRC officer group from Gidea Hall in Summer 1915 ... I cannot for certain make out the medal ribbons in the studio portrait. The left hand one could be the 1914 Star with rosette or possibly the DSO with rosette for the Bar (allowing for the vagaries of orthochromatic film colour representation). If it's the 1914 Star, then what can the right hand ribbon be? If the DSO without a Bar, then they are in the wrong order. It is definitely not the MC anyway. They cannot be the BWM / VM pair, as he was entitled to a Mons Star trio. Edited 3 February , 2017 by MBrockway Manual reconnection to new Gallery URLs required as per SPOF's guidelines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 4 March , 2016 Share Posted 4 March , 2016 (edited) Pennell's obituary from the 1963 KRRC Chronicle ... Very nice to see the ToC H connection with all its links to the rifles. Richard Pennell seems to have been a remarkable man. Edited 3 February , 2017 by MBrockway Manual reconnection to new Gallery URLs required as per SPOF's guidelines Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 4 March , 2016 Share Posted 4 March , 2016 (edited) I had assumed this picture from summer 1915 at Gidea Hall showed Pennell as a 2/Lt ... ... but I note in his obituary above that he was not commissioned until 1916. This could of course be an error in the 1963 obituary, and in the 1916 KRRC Chronicle, Pennell himself writes ... "I joined the Battalion on 5th July, 1915, and found about 130 men clothed in anything and everything but uniform. It was my first connection with the New Army, and after 10½ years' experience in the Regular Army, I must confess that my feelings were somewhat mixed when I first saw the motley crowd that faced me on my first parade. The other officers [my emboldening] serving in the battalion were:- " and he goes on to list all the commissioned officers. I had likewise taken this to mean he was already a subaltern, but it could be just as true that he was the battalion's RSM. In the photo above any rank insignia are unfortunately out of sight, though there is a hint of something on his epaulette, which looks more like a crown than the standard blackened KRR or KRRC shoulder title. He's also wearing the officer's 'cherry' cap badge boss. Extensive digging has so far failed to reveal if Great War practice was for WO's to wear the 'cherry' or the maltese cross as the Field Service cap badge. Current practice in The Rifles is for both commissioned officers and warrant officers to wear The Rifles corded boss badge with the side cap. This suggests Great War practice may well have been for an RSM to wear the 'cherry'. With the forage cap (the modern approximation of the Field Service cap) the boss is no longer worn even by commissioned officers, instead using The Rifles strung bugle badge. Could his uniform here be consistent with being a WOI / RSM? Edited 17 January , 2018 by MBrockway Broken image link corrected Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBrockway Posted 4 March , 2016 Share Posted 4 March , 2016 I note in his obituary above that he was not commissioned until 1916. This could of course be an error in the 1963 obituary, and in the 1916 KRRC Chronicle, Pennell himself writes ... Yep - it is an error in the obit ... ... but if he was commissioned in September and this photo is from summer 1915, he is probably RSM / WOI here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie962 Posted 4 March , 2016 Share Posted 4 March , 2016 Mark The photo of Pennell in the History of 12 ES is taken I think from the studio portrait you have shown. My copy is a NMP reprint and the photos are not good quality. Good to see the obit. All in all quite a bit of interesting info accumulated on this thread. The ribbons suggest DSO with rosette for bar plus 1914 Star Ribbon. Rosette for 1914 Star didn't come till later. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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