Captain John Penberthy

Captain John Penberthy F.R.G.S., M.E. (1839-1914):  The Man Behind the Mask. By Sharron P. Schwartz. Due 2028.
The redoubtable Captain John Penberthy, a Cornish mining engineer, enjoyed a fascinating 60-year career which took him to Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia and Siam. The only mine he ever captained in Cornwall, was his father’s old mine: Providence at Lelant. Penberthy was the first cousin of Sir Henry Irving, actor manager of the Lyceum Theatre, London, with whom he spent his formative years at Halsetown, St Ives, in a household governed by his mother’s strict adherence to Teetotal Methodism. Penberthy rubbed shoulders with actors, writers, journalists, politicians and presidents, and was well-known among the mining class for being a witty, yet forthright character, and an excellent mine manager who exuded professionalism. But his personal life could not have been more different. It was coloured by selfish, reckless behaviour which landed him in trouble. The behavioural parallels with Irving, a tortured genius, are remarkable. This biography details, for the first time, his career in parts of the world that have received little to no attention by mining historians, and by using first hand accounts of the man, his own poetry, and published interviews, reveals the man behind the mask.