Education
A constituent whom Jones had been helping attended the surgery and suddenly attacked him with a samurai sword. Pennington came to Jones"s defence but was fatally injured.
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Andrew Pennington
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Pennington lived in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He was elected as a Liberal to Gloucestershire County Council in the 1985 election, defeating the sitting Labour councillor in Hesters Way division with a majority of 183 votes. On 28 January 2000 Pennington was acting as an assistant to Nigel Jones, the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Cheltenham, during Jones"s constituency surgery.
Jones survived.
Pennington was posthumously awarded the George Medal in October 2001. The citation reads:
Foreign his actions in saving the life of a man who had been attacked by another man armed with a samurai sword. Mr Andrew Pennington was assisting him when the receptionist showed a man into the office.
The Member of Parliament invited the man, who was wearing a full-length overcoat buttoned up to the neck, to sit down but the man declined and stood in front of the Member of Parliament while he read a letter on which he had been asked to advise.
A short conversation took place between them, whilst Mr Pennington looked on, but then the man began to talk nonsensically and without warning reached into his coat and drew out a long curved sword. He stood with the sword raised above his head in both hands, and as the Member of Parliament stood up, lowered it, pointing the sword tip at the Member of Parliament’s midriff.
At this point, Mr Pennington ran to the door of the office and called to the receptionist to get help. Suddenly, the man lunged forward and thrust the sword at the Member of Parliament who managed to deflect it with his left arm before grabbing the blade with both hands.
The man tried to pull the sword from the Member of Parliament’s grip and he fell face down onto the sofa with the sword beneath him.
The man fell on top of him and struggled to wrestle the sword free without success. Mr Pennington then hit the man from behind and dragged him off the Member of Parliament, telling the Member of Parliament to get away. The Member of Parliament managed to escape and ran out of the office to summon help, but the man got hold of the sword again.
A violent struggle then took place in which Mr Pennington tried to restrain the man but was stabbed repeatedly with the sword and was fatally wounded.
Mr Pennington died shortly afterwards from his injuries and the man was later arrested.
Politics
He was re-elected in 1989 and in 1993 he won his seat for the Liberal Democrats with 73.3% of the vote.
Membership
On 28 January 2000, a Member of Parliament was holding a surgery for his constituents at his office in Cheltenham.
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Born
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Died
January 28, 2000 (aged 39) -
Nationality
British -
Political Party
Liberal Democrats