Major-General Sir (William) Ronald (Campbell) Penney KBE CB DSO MC (16 May 1896 – 3 December 1964) was a British Army officer who fought in both the First and the Second World Wars. His most notable role occurred during the latter, when he was General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 1st Infantry Division during the Battle of Anzio, part of the Italian Campaign, in 1944.
Early life and military career
Born in Midlothian on 16 May 1896, Penney was the third of four sons of Joseph Campbell Penney, an Edinburgh accountant, and Margaret Eleanor Jane Gourlay. He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire and, with the intention of starting a military career, the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Still there at the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, he graduated and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Engineers on 17 November. Promoted to lieutenant on 23 December 1915, he was initially held back in the United Kingdom, but from 24 January 1916, he fought on the Western Front. He was promoted to the acting rank of captain on 22 January 1917 and made second-in-command (2IC) of a signals company, and his rank of captain was made permanent on 3 November of that year. When the war came to an end on 11 November 1918 Penney had been awarded the Military Cross (MC) and was mentioned in despatches on 18 May 1917. On 22 November 1918 he was awarded the French Croix de guerre 1914–1918 and, the Belgian Croix de guerre on 4 September 1919.
Between the wars
Immediately after the war, in March 1919, Penney became a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) at the Signal Service Training Centre, where he remained until 13 June 1921, during which time he transferred, on 11 May 1921, to the newly formed Royal Corps of Signals. He then served in India, where he played rugby for the army and served as Assistant to the Signal Officer-in-Chief, India. In 1925 he married Shirley Mary Gurner; they had two daughters. Returning to England, he served briefly as an instructor at the Royal School of Signals from 22 March 1926 until 20 January 1927, and attended the Staff College, Camberley, graduating there in late 1928. Among his many fellow students at Camberley were John Whiteley, Clement West, Eric Dorman-Smith, Angus Collier, Reginald Savory, Philip Christison, Oliver Leese, Evelyn Barker, John Hawkesworth, Alec Bishop, Eric Nares, Eric Hayes, Charles Norman, Stanley Kirby, Edmund Beard, Christopher Woolner, Wilfrid Lloyd, Reginald Savory, Robert Bridgeman and Alfred Curtis. While there he was promoted to major on 26 June 1927.
Soon after he graduated from Camberley Penney was posted to the War Office as a GSO3, from 14 April 1929 until 15 January 1931, when he was posted to Shanghai, China as a brigade major, remaining there until March 1933. On 2 January 1933 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and, on 1 July 1934, he was promoted to the brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel, and lieutenant-colonel on 1 April 1935. Upon being sent to India in 1935, where he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 21 December 1937 and was mentioned in despatches on 18 February 1938 for his part in the Waziristan campaign, he returned to England and attended the Imperial Defence College in 1939, graduating from there later in the year. Penney was the first officer from the Royal Corps of Signals to do so.
Second World War
Britain and the home front
Upon the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 Penney was still a student at the Imperial Defence College but, graduating soon afterwards, on 18 November he was promoted to colonel (with seniority backdated to 1 July 1937) and the acting rank of brigadier, and became the Deputy Director of Military Intelligence (DDMI) at the War Office on the sane date. With his rank of brigadier being made temporary on 18 May 1940, Penney remained in this post, therefore missing the Battle of France and subsequent Dunkirk evacuation, until November 1940 and, a month later, took over command of the 3rd Infantry Brigade in place of Brigadier Thomas Wilson. The brigade was one of three (the others being the 1st Guards and 2nd Infantry Brigades) which formed part of the 1st Infantry Division, whose General Officer Commanding (GOC) was then-Major-General Kenneth Anderson, and the command was Penney's first time leading a large infantry formation. The brigade was a Regular Army unit which had fought in France earlier in the year as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and was stationed on the Yorkshire coast on anti-invasion duties in the event of a German invasion.