| Full name | William John Penny | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 15 November 1856 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Langport, Somerset, England | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 17 December 1904 (aged 48) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | at sea, off Mombasa | ||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
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William John Penny (15 November 1856 – 17 December 1904) was an English international rugby union player.
Penny came from the village of Kingsbury Episcopi in Somerset. [1]
A fullback, Penny played rugby for King's College London and in 1878 made his England debut against Ireland at Lansdowne Road. [2] He was capped a further two times for England. [1]
Penny was a member of the founding committee of the Middlesex RFU in 1879. He was playing for United Hospitals at this time and in the early 1880s joined Clifton RFC after becoming a consulting surgeon at Bristol General Hospital. [1]
While on the SS Langdale in 1904, Penny fell ill and died off the coast of Mombasa. [3]