1249001 Company Sergeant Major Arthur Joseph Penny

Company Sergeant Major Arthur Joseph Penny – elsewhere recorded and signed as Penney - (Regimental Number 6), having no known last resting-place, is commemorated beneath the Caribou in Beaumont-Hamel Memorial Park. His occupation prior to military service recorded as that of a clerk earning a weekly $10.00, Arthur Joseph Penney presented himself for medical examination at the Church Lads Brigade Armoury in St. John’s on August 26 of 1914, then enlisted on September 2, recruited during the First Draft. Attesting on October 1, he embarked on October 3 onto the Bowring Brothers vessel Florizel (right – courtesy of Admiralty House Museum), although the ship did not sail until the next day, the 4th, to join the convoy carrying the 1st Canadian Division overseas. By then he had already received a first promotion, on September 21, to the rank of lance corporal. In the United Kingdom Lance Corporal Penny of ‘A’ Company trained with the Battalion: firstly in southern England on the Salisbury Plain; then in Scotland at Fort George; at Edinburgh Castle; and at Stobs Camp near the Scottish town of Hawick. Early during this period, on November 13, he was further promoted, to the rank of corporal. Some five months later again, on April 23 while at Edinburgh, he received his sergeant’s stripe. (Right: Fort George, close to the Scottish town of Inverness, was home to the Newfoundland Regiment during much of the winter of 1914-1915. – photograph from 2011) (Right below: The Newfoundland Regiment parades at Stobs Camp and is presented with its Colours on June 10, 1915 – courtesy of Reverend Wilson Tibbo and Mrs. Lillian Tibbo) At the beginning of August, Sergeant Penny was transferred with the four senior Companies – ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ - to southern England, to Aldershot, for some three weeks of final training in preparation for active service at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. (continued) 1249001 The two junior Companies – ‘E’ and ‘F’ - were sent to the new Regimental Depot on the west coast of Scotland. It is likely that, while at Aldershot, on or about August 13, Sergeant Penny re-enlisted, on this occasion for the duration of the war*. *At the outset of the War, perhaps because it was felt by the authorities that it would be a conflict of short duration, the recruits enlisted for only a single year. As the War progressed, however, this was obviously going to cause problems and the men were encouraged to re-enlist. On August 20, 1915, Sergeant took ship on the liner-converted- to-troop transport Megantic (above right) for the Middle East and for the fighting in Gallipoli where, a month later – of which two weeks had been spent at the British barracks at Abbassia, near the Egyptian capital, Cairo - on September 20, 1st Battalion landed on the beach at Suvla Bay. (Right: Newfoundland troops on board a troop-ship anchored at Mudros, either Megantic on August 29, Ausonia on September 18, or Prince Abbas on September 19 - In whichever case, they were yet to land on Gallipoli. – from Provincial Archives) (Right: ‘Kangaroo Beach’, where the men of 1st Battalion landed on the night of September 19-20, 1915, is in the distance at the far end of Suvla Bay. The remains of a landing- craft are still clearly visible in the foreground on ‘A’ Beach. – photograph from 2011) (Right below: a century later, the area, little changed from those far-off days, of the Newfoundland positions at Suvla, and where Sergeant Penny served during the fall of 1915 – photograph from 2011) It was on December 14, almost three months after landing at Suvla, that Sergeant Penny was evacuated from there to the 26th Casualty Clearing Station on the Greek island of Lemnos, for medical attention to frost-bite. On Boxing Day, December 26, he sailed for the United Kingdom on board His Majesty’s Hospital Ship Aquitania. (Right below: some of the peace-time facilities on board Aquitania in use as war-time hospital wards – the original photograph from the Cunard Archives) (continued) 1249002 Upon his arrival back in England on January 3, Sergeant Penney was transported to and admitted into the 3rd London General Hospital in the Borough of Wandsworth on that same day. He was not to remain there for long: a ten-day furlough granted to military personnel upon discharge from hospital – and apparently spent by him in Hawick and Inverness where the Regiment had been stationed, was immediately followed by a posting to the Regimental Depot where Sergeant Penny reported to duty on January 31. (Right: The main building of what became 3rd London General Hospital during the Great War was opened, on July 1st, 1859, as a home for the orphaned daughters of British soldiers, sailors and marines. – photograph from 2010) (Above far right: Newfoundland patients, unfortunately unidentified, convalescing at the 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth – courtesy of Reverend Wilson Tibbo and Mrs. Lillian Tibbo) The Regimental Depot had been established during the summer of 1915 in the Royal Borough of Ayr on the west coast of Scotland to serve as the base for the 2nd (Reserve) Battalion. It was from there – as of November of 1915 up until January of 1918 – that the new-comers were sent in drafts, at first to Gallipoli and later to the Western Front, to bolster the four fighting companies of 1st Battalion. It was also there, on February 11, that Sergeant Penny was elevated to the rank of (Acting) Company Sergeant Major. (Right above: an aerial view of Ayr – probably from the period between the Wars: Newton- on Ayr is to the left of the River Ayr and the Royal Borough is to the right. – courtesy of the Carnegie Library at Ayr) Company Sergeant Major Penny was a non-commissioned officer of the 11th Re-enforcement Draft. The contingent passed through the English south-coast port of Southampton on October 3, 1916, and disembarked in the Norman capital city of Rouen on the following day. There the Newfoundlanders made their way to the large British Expeditionary Force base Depot where they were organized, undergoing final training* prior to moving onward to their rendezvous with 1st Battalion. (Right above: British troops disembark at Rouen en route to the Western Front. – from Illustration) *Apparently the standard length of time for this final training was ten days – although this period was to become more flexible as the war progressed - in areas near Rouen, Étaples, LeHavre and Harfleur that were known to the troops as the Bull Rings. 1249003 Only four days after his arrival in France, CSM Penny was admitted into the 1st Stationary Hospital in Rouen for treatment to a venereal complaint. It was some nine weeks before he was discharged from there, released to duty on November 11 to the BEF Depot. When he eventually was to join 1st Battalion in the field seems not to be recorded. After the action of October 12 at Gueudecourt, 1st Battalion had continued its watch in and out of the trenches of the Somme – not without casualties – during the late fall and early winter, a period broken only by the several weeks spent in Corps Reserve during the Christmas period. After this six-week respite, the Newfoundlanders officially returned to active service on January 23, 1917, although they had been back in the trenches already by that date and had incurred their first casualties – and fatalities - of 1917. The only infantry activity directly involving 1st Battalion during that entire period – from the action at Gueudecourt in mid- October of 1916, until April of 1917 – was to be the sharp engagement at Sailly-Saillisel at the end of February and beginning of March, a confrontation which brought this episode in the Newfoundlanders’ War – in the area of the Somme - to a close. (Right above: The fighting during the time of the Battalion’s posting to Sailly-Saillisel took place on the far side of the village which was no more than a heap of rubble at the time. - photograph from 2009(?)) After Sailly-Saillisel the month of March was a quiet time for the Newfoundlanders; having departed from the trenches, they now spent their time near the communities of Meaulté and Camps-en-Amienois re-enforcing, re-organizing, and training for upcoming events. They even had the pleasure of a visit from the Regimental Band, and also one from the Prime Minister of Newfoundland, Sir Edward Morris (right), the latter on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day. On March 29, 1st Battalion began to make its way – on foot – from Camps-en-Amienois to the north-east, towards the venerable medieval city of Arras and eventually beyond. Three days later, on April 1, the Newfoundlanders were on the march again, towards the city of Arras and beyond, the trek to end amid the remnants of the village of Monchy-le-Preux. (Right above: the remnants of the Grande Place in Arras at the time of the Great War – from Illustration) (continued) 1249004 On April 9 the British Army launched an offensive in the area to the north of the Somme battlefields; this was the so-called Battle of Arras intended to support a French effort elsewhere. In terms of the daily count of casualties it was the most expensive operation of the War for the British, its only positive episode being the Canadian assault of Vimy Ridge on the opening day of the battle, Easter Monday. The French offensive was a disaster. (Right above: the Canadian National Memorial standing on Vimy Ridge – photograph from 2010) 1st Battalion was to play its part in the Battle of Arras, a role that would begin at a place called Monchy-le-Preux on April 14 and which would finish ten days later, on April 23, perhaps a kilometre distant, at Les Fosses Farm.

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