Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry 38


A Great War ‘Thiepval, First Day of the Somme’ M.C. group of four awarded to Second Lieutenant E. W. Poynter, Royal Field Artillery, late Honourable Artillery Company


Military Cross, G.V.R., the reverse engraved ‘Lieut. E. W. Pointer. R.F.A. Somme. 1916’; British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. E. W. Poynter.) mounted as worn; together with the recipient’s Defence Medal in named card box of issued addressed to his daughter Miss D. A. Poynter; case of issue for the M.C.; and a mounted group of three miniatures with named M.C., extremely fine (4)


£800-£1,000 M.C. London Gazette 14 November 1916:


Place: Thiepval. Date: 1st July 1916. ‘For conspicuous gallantry in action. As battery F.O.O. he went forward, and eventually succeeded in establishing a visual signalling station in the enemy’s front line trenches, though exposed to heavy shell and machine-gun fire for more than six hours.’


Ernest William Poynter was born in London on 4 August 1894. He attested for the Honourable Artillery Company on 21 June 1915, and was posted to 3/1 B Battery. Appointed to a temporary commission in the Royal Field Artillery on 25 October 1915, he landed in France on 4 February 1916, where he was attached to D/153rd Brigade. Decorated for his gallantry on 1 July 1916, he was slightly wounded on 3 July 1916. He was on leave in the U.K. from 18-25 September 1916, and again from 11-21 June 1917. Poynter was admitted to hospital having been gassed at Ypres on 12 July 1917, and evacuated to England per hospital ship St Patrick on 1 August 1917. Whilst in hospital in Cambridge he applied to the War Office for a vacancy in the Royal Flying Corps Balloon Section but his continued ill-health from the affects of gas poisoning denied him any further active service and he was duly released from the Army in February 1919.


Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Poynter and his wife were living in the borough of Hammersmith. His daughter had been evacuated with some of the other girls and teachers to Berkshire. When Anthony Eden announced the formation of the Local Defence Volunteers, soon to be renamed the Home Guard, Poynter volunteered and joined the local unit. For a long time, they had neither uniform nor weapons. Later, basic uniform was issued. Later still, his daughter received a card from her mother saying that rifles from Canada covered in grease had come and that the men were happily degreasing them. The bombing of London started on 7 September 1940. On 18 September at 0400hrs, during a raid, two bombs landed close to the family home. A high explosive bomb blew out the windows at the back of the house and a time bomb fell 40 feet from the front door. The family left for a shelter and when the bomb exploded at about 0830, the house was uninhabitable. Moving to Kingsbury, London NW9, Poynter joined the local Home Guard company which was led by Captain Upton V.C. In 1943, there was a call for any Home Guard members with gunnery experience to retrain to man anti-aircraft units. When trained, they would man units to the northern side of London, thus releasing regular gunners to man units where more bombers were attacking. So, the then Sergeant Poynter trained at Walton on the Naze and became Second Lieutenant Poynter. One in six nights, his duty was from 6:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. at Yeading, quite a drive from his home, for which he received petrol coupons. Poynter continued serving in the Home Guard until some time in 1944, when he changed his occupation. This involved evening work, so he had to resign. Serving as he had from the earliest days until 1944 when the Defence Medal was created and issued, he was entitled to receive one. However, one had to apply for it, and he never did. Many years later, his daughter applied to the appropriate authority and received the medal.


Sold with record of service.


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