Service Details
- Branch of Service
- Army
- Conflict
- World War I (1914-1918)
- Date of Enlistment
- 04/04/1916
- Place of Enlistment
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
Personal Details
- Gender
- Male
- Other Name(s)
- Cairns-Penny
- Date of Birth
- 29/12/1895
- Place of Birth
- Maryborough, Queensland
- Address (at enlistment)
- Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT
- School(s) Attended
- Maryborough Grammar (Queensland)
- Occupation
- Soldier
- Next of Kin
- Geoffrey Cairns-Penny (brother), Post Office Hotel, Maryborough, Queensland. His parents, John and Frances Penny, both died in 1916.
- Burial Place
Pont-D'Achelles Military Cemetery, Nieppe, France plot 1, row A
Unit and Rank Details
- Final Rank
- Lieutenant
- Final Unit
- 8 Field Artillery Brigade AIF
Fate
Died near Messines, Belgium on 5 June 1917, aged 21 years
Commemoration
AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 15, Canberra ACT
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT
Notes
Penny entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 12 March 1914 with the fourth intake of cadets and graduated early, along with his class, on 3 April 1916. He was appointed as a Lieutenant with the 36th Battery of the 9th Field Artillery Brigade, disembarking in July 1916 at Devonport, England. After further training in England he joined the 30th Battery of the 8th Field Artillery Brigade in January 1917. He was killed on 5 June 1917 in the lead up to the Battle of Messines in Belgium. At about 7am he was asleep in a dugout at his battery's position in the rear of Court Dreve Farm near Hill 63 when a shell hit the dugout killing Penny instantly. The Roll of Honour lists him as Desmond Ferguson Cairns-Penny (as does his service file) although the Queensland Births, Deaths and Marriages web site lists his surname as Penny. There is no Roll of Honour circular for him.
Sources
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
AWM Roll of Honour
Queensland Births, Deaths & Marriages web site https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch