Ottiwell Aaron Partington was born in Reddish, Stockport, on 24 April 1889. He was educated at Reddish School and was apprenticed at Furnivals and Company Limited in May 1903. He began engineering studies at Gorton Evening Technical School in 1908, studying applied mathematics, heat engines and machine design, entropy and steam theory, hydrostatics, pneumatics, hydraulics and chemistry. He completed his studies in 1913. He began work at Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth and Company Limited in 1914 as a jig, gtool and gauge fitter and began work on tooling a gauging naval gun mountings for the Admiralty. He worked on Admiralty contracts throughout the First World War. He married Nora Brown on 11 September 1915.

From 1927, Partington worked on tooling contracts for Armstrong Siddeley Motors and the Ford Motor Company. At the same time he was appointed as Works Senior Foreman at Armstrong Whitworth, in charge of the machine and fitting shops and the jig and tool department. He continued to work for the company after it amalgamated with Vickers Limited to become Vickers Armstrong Limited in 1928.

Partington was made redundant in 1930, when the English Steel Corporation closed the Openshaw Works, which they had taken over from Vickers Armstrong in 1929. He was unemployed for a short period before joining Ferranti Limited as a fitter in 1931. Following a short contract, he gained employment with Ferguson Pailin Limited before moving to Craven Brothers to take up the role of Inspector in the gear cutting department. He left Craven Brothers in 1942 to join Flying Needle Frames Limited of Gloucester, moving with the company to their Burton on Trent works in 1946. At FNF Limited, he worked on the development of warp knitting machines. He retired in April 1954 to the village of Stretton. He died in July 1964.