Howard Latimer Penman, 10 April 1909 - 13 October 1984

Abstract

Howard Penman, the only child of Robert and Isabella Penman, was born in the small town of Dunston-on-Tyne, County Durham, on 10 April 1909. Robert served his apprenticeship as a woodcutting machinist, and when he had qualified as a master carpenter he worked with several brothers in the famous yard of Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson. According to family tradition, the Penman brothers were responsible for building most of the Mauretania, ‘and very proud of it too’ according to Howard—though he admitted the possibility of some help from others! Like her husband, Isabella came from a large family and although she was only 11 when her mother died, she was removed from school to become housekeeper to her father and siblings. A childhood friend describes the Penman parents as ‘highly respectable and quite strict’ and from them he acquired a nonconformist and somewhat ascetic attitude to life, which professional honours and international distinctions did little to change.