Description:Harry Penton walking with his dog 'Peg' in Cannock town centre in the mid 1950s. Harry would have been around 60 at this time, still working as a coal miner. He retired aged 65 in about 1961. He died aged 82 in Kingsmead Hospital, Stafford in 1978.
Harry was born into a coal mining family in Norton Canes in 1896, one of eleven children. The family moved to Cannock after 1900. Harry worked at Littleton Colliery all of his working life except for a period during the First World War when he served in the Royal Engineers, 2nd North Midland Field Company.
His rank was Driver; equivalent to Private. Each Driver looked after two horses. They would usually join up with two other drivers to form a six horse team which pulled a wagon. This was the main transport to and from the front carrying arms, food medical supplies and casualties back from the lines. They would also pull heavier artillery into position at times. Drivers would often also be trained as relief gunners. It was a dangerous job as the wagons would frequently be targeted by enemy machine gun fire and artillery to try disrupt supply lines to the front line troops.
His two elder brothers Thomas 'Tom' Penton (born 1889) and James 'Jim' Penton (born 1895) also served in the First World War. Jim, a well known local boxer, was killed by a sniper at age 21 in 1916. Tom survived the war but was wounded twice, first by a shell in 1916 then much more severely by mustard gas in 1917.
Harry and his wife Maud had four children. Two, Harry and Ronald, died in infancy in the 1920s. Their son Victor became a self-employed local builder. Their daughter Patricia worked for the Air Ministry at Stonehouse, Rugeley and later as a teacher at Huntington and Cardinal Griffin Schools in Cannock.