Daniel Pennington 1890 -1915

Daniel Pennington was born on 10^th April 1890. He was the son of John and Elizabeth Pennington and the younger brother of Ruth.

John Pennington appears in the 1861 Census as a six-year-old. He is living with his grandfather, John, and Margaret Collinson, an aunt. Margaret was the mother of a one-year-old, also called John. Mr Collinson was a cordwainer, or a shoemaker, as we would know them today. The family lived in South Street in Durham.

The 1891 Census saw the Pennington family living near the Station House in Shincliffe in Low Road. This was two years before the station was closed for good. John Pennington is described as a boat builder.

In 1901 the Penningtons are living next to the Railway Tavern. John is still a boat builder and they have been joined by another daughter, Constance, aged nine. At this point, Ruth is registered as an infant schoolteacher in Newcastle (in the Westgate area) and appears to be living with her uncle and aunt, James, and Hannah Wright.

Daniel Pennington had entered the world of work by 1911. His father was now listed as a carpenter while Daniel was working in a brickworks. The Ordnance Survey Map of 1895 shows the Shincliffe Brick and Tile Works and the Sherbernhouse (sic) Brick and Tile Works on opposite sides of what is now the Peterlee Road. Daniel could have been working at either of these.

Daniel Pennington was killed on 26^th April 1915, aged twenty-five. He had joined the Durham Light Infantry and was killed in action in the France and Flanders theatre.

Elizabeth Pennington died in 1916 followed by John Pennington in 1925. William’s sister, Ruth, emigrated to Toronto in Canada in 1924. Constance married Thomas Wilson in 1926. 

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