William Richard Pointing, noted by Chailey Parish Magazine
in March 1915 as serving his King and Country, was one of four brothers who served during the First World War.
He was born at Lewes about May 1889 and by the time the 1901
census was taken, was living at Tomsetts, Chailey with his family. That family
comprised James Pointing (senior) aged 44 and working as a postman, his 40 year old wife Alice (working as a laundress from
home) and their four children: William Pointing (aged 13), Alice Pointing (aged nine), James Pointing (aged six) and George
Pointing (aged four). A fourth son, 14 year old Frank Pointing, was boarding
at Teague Green, Chailey.
Thankfully, William’s partial service record survives
in the WO 364 pension series held at the National Archives and I quote from it below.
I had previously guessed that his army service number –
G/211 – indicated to me that he enlisted between 15th August and 21st August 1914.
In fact he joined the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) on 20th August 1914. He
was 25 years and four months old, and stood five feet and three inches tall. He
was working as a gardener for Colonel Colin Campbell at Doddington Hall, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire.
He was posted to the 6th Battalion, The Buffs, on the 23rd
August 1914 and remained in England until 31st May 1915.
His army time in the UK appears
to have been uneventful except when he overstayed his leave by a few hours on 17th April 1915 and was “admonished.” The following month he married Alice Levitt (1889-1985) at Battle
in Sussex.
Army Form Z.22 (Statement as to disability) notes that William
was in France (and later Germany)
between 1st June 1915 and 27th November 1918. During his time overseas he was
wounded twice: at Goudecourt on the 7th October 1916 (a “slight” shoulder wound) and at Arras on 6th April 1917 when he received a shrapnel wound to his left hand. He was sent to number 38 Field Ambulance the following day and then to the 37th Field Hospital at Arras. He returned to his
battalion on the 19th April.
On 30th November 1917 he was reported missing and subsequently
discovered to be a prisoner of war. He was repatriated after the Armistice, arriving
back in England on 26th November 1918. Chailey Parish Magazine had noted in its January 1918 that he was a prisoner and also,
in December 1916, that he had been wounded.
On Army Form Z.22, which William completed on 12th February
1919, he gives his address as South Street, Chailey. The medical officer examining him wrote:
“Claims pains in the left arm and inability to use little
finger of left hand due to wound of this finger. There is a healed stump of the
last phalanx of the left little finger. The exterior tendons have been cut and there is permanent [unclear] of the last inter
phalangical joint which is also partially ankylosed. The wound on the right shoulder
was very slight and causes no disability.”
William’s case was assessed as a 20 per cent disability
and in June 1919 he was awarded a gratuity of twenty-one pounds for "useless left little finger".
William died on 3rd May 1953 at Cuckfield, Sussex at the relatively young
age (by today’s standards anyway) of 64. His three brothers Frank, George and James all served during the First World War. I believe that his mother, Alice Pointing, is the same Alice Pointing noted as serving as a cook with Sussex 54 VAD. His sister, also Alice Pointing, married
Ernest Frank Stevens who is also commemorated on this site.
