By Mal Butler
A Shanklin man has retired as treasurer of the Isle of Wight branch of the Royal Hampshire Regiment Comrades’ Association after almost 40 years of service.
John Penn, 89, is also the group’s last active Malayan Veteran and a branch vice president. He was practically born into the Hampshire Regiment, nicknamed ‘The Tigers’, as his father was a pre-war regular soldier, and saw action at both Dunkirk and D-Day. Returning from Dunkirk, John’s father immediately taught his two sons to shoot, using a ‘Daisy’ air-pistol.
In 1954 John was called up for National Service and was sent to Malaya with the Hampshires and saw action there. On leaving the army, he started a successful plastering business, and joined the Island branch of the Comrades in 1976.
By way of sport, John returned to shooting and eventually took up long-range pistol, using a long-barrelled pistol chambered in 30”-06 and became a world record holder in 1985 and British National Long-Range Pistol Champion around the same time. He also acted as a range officer at Bisley for the last 30 years and even now can be found operating the electronic targets on the Bisley Gallery range.
Members of the branch presented John with a gift of a painting depicting a Royal Hampshire patrol in Malaya, produced by its own ‘in-branch’ artist, Stan Hyder, whose work was recently featured on the BBC’s The One Show.
Isle of Wight Observer