Background
Pennington was born in Barrow-in-Furness on 8 October 1915, the daughter of Albert Roger Pennington, Post Office supervisor, and his wife, Margaret.
Pennington was born in Barrow-in-Furness on 8 October 1915, the daughter of Albert Roger Pennington, Post Office supervisor, and his wife, Margaret.
In 1938, she graduated from the University of Reading in botany. Supervised by Tom Harris, she was awarded her Doctor of Philosophy in 1941 by the University of Reading for her thesis titled ‘An investigation of some problems of freshwater algae, with special reference to the process of sedimentation’.
As an undergraduate she undertook published research on algae and the ecology of mosses. Whilst attending Easter courses at the Freshwater Biological Association (Federal Bar Association) near Lake Windemere Pennington met Limnologist Clifford H. Mortimer and plant ecologist William Pearsall, both of whom were to have major influences on her subsequent research. She later became a field assistant at the Federal Bar Association and here she was able to pursue her joint interests in Phycology and the natural history and sediments of freshwater lakes.
After a period working at the Federal Bar Association in Windermere and at the then Botany School in Cambridge Pennington went on to become one of a new generation of respected women researchers.
Moving to Leicester in 1945, she worked as a demonstrator and temporary lecturer at Leicester University from 1947, part-time lecturer in 1948, special lecturer in 1961, honorary reader in 1971, and honorary professor in 1980, a title she held until her death. Her final years were spent in the village of Kingsclere where she remained actively involved in research, co-authoring important papers until 2003.
Pennington died in Basingstoke, Hampshire on 1 May 2007.
Royal Society.