Lieutenant-Colonel P.R. Lane-Joynt
8th Battalion, Royal Scots

As the bn advanced enemy fire became most intense, control became increasingly difficult and extension of the bridgehead appeared impossible. However in the cramped and increasingly dangerous situation the CO pushed forward his coys in a continuous effort to enlarge the bridgehead.

(D.S.O. citation, 1 March 1945)

Born on 24 December 1901 in County Clare, Ireland, Philip Robert Lane-Joynt was educated at Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Royal Irish Rifles in 1921 before transferring to the Prince of Wales’s Volunteers the next year. He was promoted to captain in 1935 and major in 1938. He mobilized with the South Lancashire Regiment.

In July 1944, Lane-Joynt joined the 8th Battalion, Royal Scots as second-in-command, succeeding Lieutenant-Colonel D.A.D. Eykyn who had taken over 11th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers. Only weeks later, the 8th Royal Scots CO Lieutenant-Colonel Rohan Delacombe was wounded and Lane-Joynt became the new commanding officer.

For the capture of a bridgehead in the face of heavy enemy counter-attack in mid-September, he earned the D.S.O. The next month he was succeeded by Major J.A.H. Douglass before the elevation of Lieutenant-Colonel B.A. Pearson of 2nd Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders in November 1944. Postwar, Lane-Joynt returned to the South Lancashire Regiment and later commanded the 2nd Battalion, Nigeria Regiment.

Lane-Joynt died on 5 March 1981 in Newton Abbot, Devon.