Polly Renton

The Honourable Polly Renton, born Penelope Sally Rosita Renton (4 March 1970 – 28 May 2010), was a British documentary film maker and proponent of ethical journalism, who played an important part in transforming political television in East Africa and trained a generation of African television journalists through her Nairobi based NGO, MEDEVA (Media Development in Africa). Early life and education Penelope (‘Polly’) Sally Rosita Renton was born in Brighton on 4 March 1970, the youngest of the five children of Tim Renton (later Baron Renton of Mount Harry), a Conservative MP and Chief Whip to Margaret Thatcher, and his wife Alice (née Fergusson), a novelist and historian. She was named, in part, after her great aunt, the novelist and explorer Rosita Forbes. Her siblings include the investigative journalist and author Alex Renton and the artist and cartoonist Chelsea Renton. She was educated at Windlesham House School and Roedean before going up to Magdalen College, Oxford to read Modern Languages. After university she spent time in Guatemala helping to rescue children from prostitution before threats to her life forced her to leave the country.