Son of Mayson Penn and Christian. Whitehaven 10b 644, Dec qtr 1891. Emigrated to Australia, c1912.
Killed at Gallipoli during WW1. The following information is from the web site for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Private Mayson Penn 744, 19th Bn, Australian Infantry, AIF, died on Wednesday 25th August, 1915. Age 23. Memorial at Lone Pine Memorial, Turkey. Grave reference/panel number 64.
On the 6th-10th August Australian, New Zealand and Indian forces, with part of the 13th Division, attempted to carry Chunuk Bair and Hill 971, inland from, and North-East of, the “original Anzac Area”; and New Zealand troops, with others, at one time reached the summit of Chunuk Bair and held it until they were relieved. By the 12th, Bauchop’s Hill, Table Top, and a considerable salient covering Argyl Dere had been taken, and at the South end of the line Lone Pine was secured by the 1st Australian Division; but Baby 700, Chunuk Bair and Hill 60 (on the Suvla side) were still in enemy hands, in spite of the desperate bravery and the temporary successes of the main force. This fighting (the Battle of Sari Bair) was the climax of the effort to reach the central hills of the Peninsula. On the 21st-29th August, in conjunction with the forces at Suvla, Australian infantry and Light Horse, New Zealand Mounted Rifles, and some British and Indian infantry captured half of Hill 60. From that time onwards the line remained stationary. After long and anxious consideration, it was decided to withdraw from Gallipoli, and on the 18th-20th December, 1915, Anzac was evacuated without the loss of a single man. The Memorial stands on the site of the fiercest fighting at Lone Pine; and it overlooks the whole front line of May, 1915. Many of those whose names are recorded on the Memorial were buried on that front, in graves made in haste and obliterated by shell-fire later. Many were killed in tunnels or in trenches. The proportion of dead whose names are on Memorials on Gallipoli, and not on headstones, is very high. But it was this close fighting, in a country of ridges and valleys, against a determined enemy, which established in history the name of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.