Donald Henshaw Pennington (15 June 1919 – 28 December 2007) was a historian of 17th-century England. He taught at

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and Oxford universities, becoming a tutor at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

in 1965. Donald was born in

Marple, Greater Manchester Marple is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. It is on the River Goyt, south-east of Manchester, north of Macclesfield and south-east of Stockport. In United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011, it had a popul ...

, near Stockport.and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008, Vol.8A, Page.4,Line.4."
Retrieved 27 March 2020. His father, Frederick Pennington, was the Headmaster of the Albert Schools in Marple when Donald was born. His mother Gladys (nee Prentice) also taught at Marple School. Donald's mother was a sister of Frederick's first wife, Clara Prentice. Frederick and Clara Prentice were married on the third of August 1905 at Marple. Clara died in 1915. Donald's parents were married in Marple on the 30th of August 1918. By 1931 his father had become Headmaster of the Willows School. On the 23rd of March 1955 he spoke on a forty five minute radio broadcast programme with

Veronica Wedgwood Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood, (20 July 1910 – 9 March 1997) was an English historian who published under the name C. V. Wedgwood. Specializing in the history of 17th-century England and continental Europe, her biographies and narrative hist ...

and

Hugh Trevor-Roper Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of ...

, about the causes of the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. There was a follow up programme broadcast four days later.CAUSES OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR:2.Differences of Method."
Third Programme. 27 March 1955. ''Radio Times'', Issue 1637. p.13: BBC Genome Project. Retrieved 27 March 2020.

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

also consulted Donald about the origins of the English Civil War. He was rewarded with signed copies of the first two volumes of Churchill's

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples ''A History of the English-Speaking Peoples'' is a four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies and possessions throughout the world, written by Winston Churchill, covering the period from Caesar's invasions of Britain (55 BC) to the en ...

. In 1956 Donald was actively engaged in the work of the National Committee for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Tests. This was a precursor of the CND.''Donald Pennington''. John Prest. He became a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (

CND The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

) and was involved with that organisation from the outset. Donald served as the north-west regional secretary, and a member of the national executive.Pennington: Leading English historian and founder member of CND."
''The Guardian.'' Martin Kettle, 21 February 2008. Retrieved 27 March 2020. His works include ''Europe in the Seventeenth Century'', ''Members of the Long Parliament'' (with D. Bruton) and ''Puritans and Revolutionaries, Essays Presented to Christopher Hill'' (with Keith Thomas).

References

The Guardian newspaper 21 Feb 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennington, D. H. 2007 deaths British anti–nuclear weapons activists Academics of the University of Manchester Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford British male writers 20th-century British historians Male non-fiction writers 1919 births