Major Poyntz Takes Command

Hugh Poyntz [X550/1/82]

Wednesday 10th November 1915: Major Hugh Poyntz arrived with the 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment on 5th November and today takes over command from Lieutenant-Colonel H F Bidder who returns to the Royal Sussex Regiment. The Battalion goes back into the line again after a short break.

Major Poyntz has a brother in the 3rd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, Lieutenant E S M Poyntz and both brothers turned out as amateur batsmen for Somerset before the war, Lieutenant Poyntz captaining them in 1913 and 1914(1).

Source: X550/3/wd

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(1) Neither brother was a particularly distinguished cricketer. H S Poyntz played first-class cricket for Orange Free State and in a career lasting from 1904 to 1921 made 1,288 runs in 40 matches averaging 19.22. He also took 5 wickets, average 36.40. Massey Poyntz in a career lasting 105 matches from 1905 to 1919 made 3,127 runs at 17.08 and took 8 wickets at 39.62.

A Hot Arrival and the Fear of Mines

Friday 5th November 1915: the adjutant of the 2nd Bedfords tell us that Major Hugh Stainton Poyntz arrived at the Battalion Headquarters yesterday, it is expected that he will take over from the Royal Sussex’s Regiment’s Major Bidder shortly. Eager to see what he could of his new command Major Poyntz attended a session instructing new arrivals on how to throw bombs or grenades. Not long after arrival he was wounded on the forehead by a bomb which landed too near to him. However, he brushed the incident off and remains at duty.

Meanwhile, further south, the adjutant of the 7th Battalion reports that noises were heard in their front line trench overnight. An officer in a nearby mining company came over to listen at two separate points and attributed the noises heard to rats or to a relief of sentries by the enemy. However he intends to make doubly certain tomorrow when he will listen again. The area in which this battalion finds itself is a hotbed of mining activity, both sides tunnelling under the others’ lines in order to explodes mines beneath them. Given this fact it is not surprising if any strange noise coming from below ground causes some alarm

Sources: X550/3/wd; X550/8/1