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Lieutenant Philip Denys DOYNE
A Company, 1/4th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Date of birth: 28th October 1891 Date of death: 28th December 1915 Killed in action aged 24 Buried at Hebuterne Military Cemetery Plot I Row D Grave 9
Philip Denys Doyne was born at Horningsham in Wiltshire on the 28th of October 1891 the eldest son of the Reverend Philip Valentine Doyne, Vicar of Horningsham, and Mary Elizabeth (nee Johnson) Doyne later of Quarry Vicarage, Beckley in Oxford. He was christened at St John the Baptist's Church, Horningsham on the 29th of November 1891. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Olds House from September 1905 to December 1909. He went on to Keble College Oxford in October 1910 where he was a member of the Oxford University Officer Training Corps and achieved a 3rd Class BA in History in 1913. He was an Assistant Master at Winchester House in Deal from 1913 to 1914 before being offered a place at Ely Theological College which he deferred to accept a commission. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on the 14th of September 1914 and was promoted to temporary Captain on the 9th of December 1914. He embarked for France on the 3rd of August 1915 and relinquished his temporary rank on the 22nd of August to enable him to serve at the front. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 10th of September 1915. He returned from a short leave at home on the 28th of December 1915 and later the same day the battalion relieved the 7th Battalion Worcestershire Regiment in the front line near Courcelles. That night he and a soldier went out from the trenches to examine the wire in front of the German trenches. At 10pm, having not returned, they were considered as missing. The man later returned but without Philip Doyne. A search party was dispatched under Captain Jones which returned two hours later having found his body in a shell hole. He had been struck in the head and killed by a machine gun bullet. His General wrote:- "He is a great loss to the Battalion, who will miss him very much, he had been doing so well." Another officer wrote:- "He was always so keen and full of spirits, a thorough soldier and his men were fond of him. They would follow him anywhere." Another wrote:- "He was a man, brave and absolutely fearless. When there was dangerous work he was not one to send others, but to go himself. He always knelt down before going over the top of the trenches." An OL who served under him wrote:- "He was one of those who care for things that really count, and I have always admired him for his moral courage in championing all that is right and straight". Another wrote of:- "The intimate talks he had with the Captain on spiritual things, for the latter made no secret of the depth and strength of his religious conviction." He is commemorated on a plaque at Headington Quarry Church, on the war memorial in the chapel at Keble College Oxford and on the memorial at Winchester House School. His father applied for his medals in February 1922.

Olds House