21 Facts About Reginald Pinney

Reginald Pinney led it in the early part of 1915, taking heavy losses at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.

Reginald Pinney commanded the 33rd at Arras in 1917, with mixed results, and through the German spring offensive in 1918, where the division helped stabilise the defensive line after the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps was routed.

Reginald John Pinney was born on 2 August 1863 in Clifton, Bristol, the eldest son of the Reverend John Pinney, vicar of Coleshill, Warwickshire, and his wife, Harriet.

John and Harriet Reginald Pinney had five more children, four sons and a daughter, before Harriet's death in 1877.

Reginald Pinney passed out of the college and was appointed to the Royal Fusiliers, one of the oldest regiments in the British Army, as a lieutenant on 6 February 1884.

Reginald Pinney spent five years with his regiment before attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1889 to 1890; after leaving Camberley, he was promoted to captain in December 1891.

Reginald Pinney married Hester Head in 1900; the couple had three sons and three daughters.

Reginald Pinney saw active service in the Second Boer War, arriving in South Africa in November 1901 to become second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.

Reginald Pinney served with the battalion until the end of the war, which ended with the Peace of Vereeniging in June 1902.

Reginald Pinney relinquished command of the battalion in May 1907 and then went on half-pay, receiving a promotion to full colonel that November.

Reginald Pinney later took up the position of assistant adjutant general in Egypt in September 1909, taking over from Gerald Cuthbert.

Reginald Pinney held this posting until July 1913 when he was transferred back to England to command a reserve unit, the Devon and Cornwall Brigade of the Wessex Division, a formation of the part time Territorial Force.

The decision to rotate commanders appears to have been a desire to give Landon, four years older than Reginald Pinney, a less active command, as the 35th was occupying a relatively quiet sector; presumably, it was felt that Reginald Pinney was a more effective commander for an active division.

When Reginald Pinney met the officers of one of his new battalions in early October 1916, they recorded that he seemed "pleasant and human", and "not too old".

In January 1917 Reginald Pinney was awarded a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Reginald Pinney remained in hospital for two months, during which time he missed heavy fighting by the 33rd at the Battle of Passchendaele.

At the Selle, Reginald Pinney organised a dawn attack with improvised bridges, allowing the 33rd to force a bridgehead and successfully clear the opposing bank in a short time.

In February 1919, with the division mostly demobilised, Reginald Pinney retired from the army, aged fifty-five, after thirty-five years service.

Reginald Pinney became a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant for the county, and served as its high sheriff in 1923.

Reginald Pinney did not return to an active army post, though he was the colonel of his old regiment, the Royal Fusiliers, from 1924 until 1933, and was honorary colonel of the Dorsetshire Coast Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery and of the 4th Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment.

Reginald Pinney died at the age of 79 on 18 February 1943, survived by his wife and five of his children.