A FORMER lady captain of Windermere Golf Club who was a hugely respected and popular figure in the Windermere area has died at the age of 98.

Maureen Pennington, who was known to most people as ‘Penny,’ was noted as an independent and impeccably dressed lady who counted TV star Alan Whicker among her former suitors.

Born in Liverpool, her father William Pennington served in World War One and later in life became a theatrical stage manager who worked with Sir Ken Dodd.

He could trace his family lineage back to the days of Henry II while her mother Mary could trace her family back to a fourth century Irish king.

Maureen served in the Women’s Land Army throughout World War Two before moving to the Lake District where she initially worked as a florist before

becoming receptionist at the Stag’s Head Hotel and then the Old England Hotel, where she continued to work until her late seventies.

She also ran a luxury souvenir shop on Lake Road in Bowness.

Maureen never married but was never short of admirers, declining two proposals of marriage from the same Australian mining millionaire who visited Windermere in the 1950s.

As well as being courted by 'Whicker’s World' star Alan, she also came the attention of celebrated shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis whilst serving him drinks at a cocktail party in the Lake District.

Maureen had a lifelong love of golf, especially at her beloved Windermere GC where she served on various committees and was Lady Captain in 1983, just one year apart from her great friend Dorothy Rayner, and loved returning to the club for the annual Past Captain’s Dinner.

Golf was certainly in the blood and her cousin Major Augustus Kenrick was secretary at St Andrew’s Golf Club.

Maureen had an elder sister Alicia Patricia and younger brothers William and Richard and was a beloved aunt and great-aunt.

She moved to a nursing home closer to her late sister’s children and grandchildren in Formby, Merseyside, for the last few years of her life and, fortified by the last rites of the Catholic Church, she died peacefully after a short illness in the presence of her loving great-nephew Charles Marshall.