William Arthur Greener Penlington was a lecturer at Auckland Teachers’ College at the time of his enlistment. He served on the Western Front with the New Zealand Rifle Brigade and was wounded (gas shell) at Messines on 7th June 1917. He was hospitalised back to England and spent periods in the No 1 NZ General Hospital and at the NZ Convalescent Hospital at Hornchurch. It is very likely that he worked up some of his watercolour sketches while at Hornchurch. Towards the end of 1917 Penlington was classified medically unfit, and he returned to New Zealand on the Arawa in early 1918. Following his return he was (briefly) a science lecturer at the Training College before taking up vocational training with Defence in Auckland and Wellington, and was subsequently headmaster of Hastings Boys’ High School. He died in 1982.