Andrew Pennington

Andrew James Pennington GM (1 February 1960 – 28 January 2000) was a British politician, and a posthumous recipient of the George Medal in 2001.

Background

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.^[1] He was re-elected in 1989 and in 1993 he won his seat for the Liberal Democrats with 73.3% of the vote.^[2]

Death

On 28 January 2000 Pennington was acting as an assistant to Nigel Jones, the Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, during Jones's constituency surgery. A constituent whom Jones had been helping with legal disputes attended the surgery suddenly attacked him with a samurai sword; Pennington came to Jones's defence but was fatally injured; he was stabbed nine times from behind - with at least six of the wounds going all the way through his body. Jones survived but required two hours of surgery as his hands were badly cut. He had 57 stitches on one hand and on the other he suffered a cut tendon.^[3]

George Medal

Pennington was posthumously awarded the George Medal by Queen Elizabeth II on 30 October 2001. The citation reads:

For his actions in saving the life of a man who had been attacked by another man armed with a samurai sword.

On 28 January 2000, a Member of Parliament was holding a surgery for his constituents at his office in Cheltenham. Mr Andrew Pennington was assisting him when the receptionist showed a man into the office. The MP 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 MP 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 MP stood up, lowered it, pointing the sword tip at the MP’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 MP 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 MP’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 MP, telling the MP to get away. The MP 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.^[4]

Trial

In February 2001 Robert Ashman, 49, of Lansdown Place, Cheltenham, was initially charged with the murder of Pennington and the attempted murder of Jones but the jury at Bristol Crown Court decided that he was mentally unfit to stand trial. After a three day hearing they returned a unanimous verdict that Ashman did kill Pennington and by a majority verdict that he injured Jones. Ashman was sent to a secure hospital for an indefinite time.^[5][6]

References