The eldest son of William Penny, of Crewkerne, Somerset. He studied at King's College Hospital, where he was a brilliant student who attracted Lord Lister's attention by mastering the details of antiseptic methods. He was House Surgeon, Sambrooke Surgical Registrar, Resident Accoucheur, and Demonstrator of Anatomy, also Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was a distinguished football player, captained the Hospital XV, played for the United Hospitals, for Somersetshire, and from time to time for England. After serving as Surgeon on RMS *Dublin Castle*, in 1884 he was appointed House Surgeon to the Bristol General Hospital for three years, and he then settled in practice at 42 Caledonian Road, Clifton; shortly afterwards he was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Bristol General Hospital, Demonstrator of Anatomy at University College, Bristol, and in 1889 Surgeon. In early life he looked one of the most robust, of a well and strongly built frame, but after eight years as Surgeon, ill health forced him to retire to his birthplace, Crewkerne, and in his forty-eighth year he died unmarried near Mombasa in British East Africa on December 25th, 1904.