Oswald F Pennington was born on 8th April 1885 in Lancashire, the son of Oswald Pennington, surveyor and Lillie Pennington nee Franklin, living at 52, Cemetery Road, Southport. Little is yet known of his early life until shortly after his 17th birthday when he signed on the steam ship LYCIA, registered London, 2116 tonnage, trading to Montreal, probably as a midshipman
Over the next three years he served on five other steam ships : FORT SALISBURY, MEMNON, PORT MORANT, BAVARIAN & IONIAN before taking to sail as an ordinary seaman in the barque VENTURA. He spent over a year on a voyage to Melbourne and the west coast of South America in the nitrate trade before returning via Cape Horn to Liverpool and successfully taking his 2nd Mate’s certificate in 1907.
He then shipped as 2nd Mate in the square rigger GLENHOLM again round the Horn to South America for over a year, before serving on two steamships: MUNCASTER CASTLE & CLAN MACPHEE. In 1912 he took and passed his 1st Mate’s ticket which he used to good effect as 4th Officer on SS GRAMPIAN and as 2nd Mate on SS ONTARIAN. In December 1913 O.F. Pennington achieved the pinnacle of academic nautical success by taking and passing his Master in Sail foreign going ticket. It is clear that Oswald had been developing his artistic skills whilst at sea and contributing cartoons and art work to the “leading seafaring magazines”. In June 1914 he was appointed as “artist and draughtsman” to the Liverpool Journal of Commerce, a new weekly edition featuring news, articles and humour for all branches of the mercantile profession; it’s first edition states : “The above photo is of Captain Oswald Franklin Pennington who has been appointed as the artist and draughtsman to the weekly Journal of Commerce. His work is well known in the nautical profession throughout the country, not only by reason of some extremely graphic sea pictures such as “Lee Fore Brace” but also because of his lively sketches and cartoons which have emanated from his pencil – some to be found in this publication.Captain Pennington, a native of Southport, has had a long and varied experience of the sea in all classes of ships, from sailing vessels to mail liners. Before retiring from the sea he was a frequent contributor to several important London magazines well known to the majority of merchant officers.”
He remained at the weekly Journal of Commerce for one year, producing many political and humorous cartoons and rising to be its editor but in July 1915 as The Great War escalated he was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant in the RNR.
OF Pennington trained at Gunnery School but then appears to have served in the Mine Sweeping Service at Portsmouth. He is believed to have commanded HMS Rugby. On 2nd July 1917 he was gazetted as Mentioned in Despatches and in the Second Supplement to the London Gazette on Tues 16th of April 1918 can be found :
“The King has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the following honours, decorations and medals to the under mentioned Officers and Men in recognition of their services in Mine Sweeping operations between 1st April and 31st December 1917”
To receive the Distinguished Service Cross: “Lieut. Oswald Franklin Pennington RNR”
He probably remained in minesweeping duties post the WW1 armistice since there was much clearance work to be done. As he later recalled in the Canadian Pacific house magazine, he then faced the choice of a career at sea or staying ashore and attempting to develop his art work commercially. It is probable that he had already produced the The Sea Shanty Series, five etchings of seamen working on square riggers. His choice was to return to the sea.
His initial employment for Canadian Pacific appears to have been in evolving a distinctive colour scheme for the different ships taken into the C.P.S.S. post WW1.
In 1920 OF Pennington served as 3rd Officer on C.P.’s SS METAGAMA. In July of 1921, “there being a surplus of officers” his services were dispensed with. However in 1924 he returned as 3rd Officer on the EMPRESS OF FRANCE, remaining until 1928. His CP career then progressed through a variety of Canadian Pacific liners and freighters, mainly the EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA where he rose to be 1st Officer by 1936 through to the second World War. Oswald Pennington also served on the EMPRESS OF CANADA, the MONTROSE, the DUCHESS OF BEDFORD, the DUCHESS OF YORK and the MONTCALM. In the first two years of WW2 he continued his service as Chief Officer on CP ships until December 1941 when he took command of the Empire Magpie on convoys to Russia from Dec 1941 to 7th Oct 1942. On July 7th he was commended for war services. On 13th Oct 1942 Captain Pennington took charge of WINNIPEG II from Liverpool bound in convoy for US. Thirteen days later on 26th Oct she was hit by a torpedo mid Atlantic from U boat 443. Every one of her 138 passengers and crew were got away in lifeboats with no loss of life although dreadful seasickness was suffered in the rescue corvette HMC MORDEN, who took the majority of the survivors to St Johns NF. Two reports exist of the sinking, one from OFP and the other from her chief officer, G. Mc. C.White, who ended with :
“The Captain was perfectly calm and level headed throughout, his cool bearing setting a fine example to his crew, all of whom behaved exceedingly well.”
Captain Pennington was now hospitalised for an extended period and on his release was employed by the Canadian Navy in charge of boom defences.
His wife was at last able to rejoin OFP in Canada in 1944 and they then lived in Montreal until 1952. During this period Oswald was accepting painting commissions.
In 1952 with OFP’s health declining the Penningtons returned to London, taking a studio in Notting Hill where he continued to paint. He died on 12th May 1953 and is buried at Gunnersbury Cemetery which we visit regularly.
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OF Pennington is my wife’s maternal grandfather and the above information represents a précis of many years of collating facts and tracing his various paintings and etchings – most information has come from his daughter (my mother-in-law) Mrs Lillian Dowding, nee Pennington, who sadly died on 10th February 2015.
In July 2015 we held an exhibition of OFP’s art works at the Cow Byre, Ruislip to commemorate the centenary of his joining the Royal Navy in 1915. I managed to collate over 100 of his pictures loaned mainly from family, plus photos of other paintings from around the world. The mayor of Hillingdon attended plus a number of owners of his work and many local people.
Research will continue on all aspects of his life and work and it is intended to expand this web site into more detailed areas covering :
known family – antecedents / descendants / addresses etc
merchant naval career to 1914 – ships / voyages / general conditions
Liverpool JOC employment – I have copied all of his published
political & humorous cartoons from research at the Colindale
Newspaper
WW1 service – commendations/decorations
Canadian Pacific career inter war – ships / voyages
WW2 service …….. torpedoing
Canadian / Montreal years ……
Last year / death / grave in London
Art Work ………. breaks into the known oil paintings, etching prints and watercolours – and the probable art work deduced from letters & adverts
Anyone accessing this site who is able to further the research by contributing more known information, photos, facts, or indeed general helpful comments that they wish to have included here should email
