William John Penny (15 November 1856 â 17 December 1904) was an English international rugby union player.
Penny came from the village of Kingsbury Episcopi in Somerset.
A fullback, Penny played rugby for King's College London and in 1878 made his England debut against Ireland at Lansdowne Road. He was capped a further two times for England.
Penny was a member of the founding committee of the Middlesex RFU in 1879. He was playing for United Hospitals at this time and in the early 1880s joined Clifton RFC after becoming a consulting surgeon at Bristol General Hospital.
While on the SS Langdale in 1904, Penny fell ill and died off the coast of Mombasa.