Family background
Frederick Penny was born in London in 1835. In 1872 at Sydney, he married Frances, the daughter of John and Frances Doyle and they had one son William F, born in 1873. Frances died in 1877 and in 1878 he married Jane Woods. He died in 1907, having spent 64 years in Sydney.
Occupation & interests
Frederick Penny reputedly served with the Transport Corps in the Crimean War, and was later employed by P & O Company. He was working as a butcher’s mate on the vessel Duncan Dunbar when it was wrecked off the South American coast in October 1865; the ship was on its way to Sydney. A fellow survivor was former Sydney Mayor George Thornton. Although he visited Australia in 1865, he permanently settle until the early 1870s. By 1873, Frederick Penny was married and established in Sydney with a butcher’s shop at 80 Dowling Street. In 1880, he had expanded his butchery and moved to 54 Darlinghurst Road at the top of William Street. From 1889 to 1905 he was at 88 Darlinghurst Road. Penny ‘concerned himself intimately with the development of the supply of Australian mutton in England, and visited that country repeatedly for the purpose of expanding the trade’. (Truth, 18 February 1894, p. 5).
Community activity
He was a Justice of the Peace (JP) and was appointed a Licensing Magistrate in 1894.
Local government service
Frederick Penny was elected Alderman of Sydney Council for Fitzroy Ward, 1 December 1894 to 6 December 1900. Penny was a member of the Finance Committee in 1900.
References
Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW: Charles Bayliss Albums PXA 444 No 30 Frederick Penny, family butcher
‘Send-off to a Sydney citizen’, The Australian Star, 13 April 1893, p. 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article227187448
‘Mr. Frederick Penny, L.M.’, Truth, 18 February 1894, p. 5. Web, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article167956705
‘Diseased meat’, Truth, 14 August 1898, p. 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168084112
‘Death of Mr Frederick Penny’, The Catholic Press, 28 February 1907, p. 15, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106285423