He was the grandson of the businessman Sir John Pender, founder of a number of telegraph companies, Eastern Telegraph, Eastern and South African Telegraph, Europe and Azores Telegraph Company, Australasia and China Telegraph Company, London Platino-Brazilian Telegraph Company, Pacific and European Telegraph Company which later became Cable & Wireless.
Pender (he assumed the additional name of Denison, his mother's maiden name, in 1890) was the third son of Sir John Pender, the founder of the Eastern Telegraph Company.
European-American settlers founded the village in April 1885, naming it in honor of the Scottish politician and businessman Sir John Pender, a pioneer of the Transatlantic Cable.
Des Vœux married Marion Denison Pender (1856–1955), daughter of John Pender, in 1875.
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His paternal Great Grandfather was Sir John Pender, the submarine communications cables pioneer who founded the Eastern Telegraph Company and other Worldwide Telegraph Companies, which became Cable & Wireless, and was the lead financier in the first successful laying of the Transatlantic Telegraph in 1866.
His Uncle (half) Sir James Pender, 1st Baronet (from Sir John Pender's first marriage) was the first chairman of Eastman Kodak (UK).