Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Peter Lawrence Penneyston was born on 20 May 1948 at the Queenstown Hospital, on the west coast of Tasmania. His family lived at Strahan and he was the third child - two older sisters and a younger brother. He attended Strahan Primary School followed by Murray High School at Queenstown.

He played Australian Rules with the Queenstown City Football Club and also was an apprentice carpenter and joiner at the Mount Lyell Mining Company.

His 'number' came up in one of the 1968 National Service Intakes but he was given an indefinite deferement due to his apprenticeship. On completion, he immediately volunteered for National Service and was in the 1 October 1969 Intake.

He completed recruit training at the Second Recruit Training Battalion, Puckapunyal, near Seymour in Victoria, and was allocated to the Royal Australian Engineers. He attended the Field Engineer Recruit Course at the School of Military Engineering, near Casula, Sydney from 26 January until 3 April 1970, qualifying as a Field Engineer Grade One.

He volunteered for service in South Vietnam and completed his next course at the Jungle Training Centre, Canungra in Queensland. He was posted to 1 Troop, 1 Field Squadron, RAE. He left Sydney and flew via Darwin arriving in Saigon on 11 June 1970.

He was soon attached, as part of a small engineer combat team, to a rifle platoon of the Second Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (infantry) on account of the threat posed by mines and explosive devices. They patrolled in the Mekong delta and hills of the Phouc Tuy Province. He had been in country for 51 days when he was killed on 2 August 1970 due to a piece of shrapenel that penetrated his chest, from an explosive device. Sadly, he was just in the vicinity.

Peter wrote many letters to his family some written just before he died, that they received after his death.

This information was provided to Gary Barker by Mrs (Wendy) Joy Crack, Peter's loving sister.