Edward Poynton was the sixth child of Alexander Poynton and Rosanna McFadden, and was born in Happy Valley, Victoria, in 1861. He was raised on the family farm, "Piangle", near Illabarook. He received very limited education and left school at about 9 or 10 years old due to the lack of money to pay fees.

In his teens he educated himself, and in a book presented as a school prize is described as "Edward Poynton, M.A." He apparently attended Melbourne University, majoring in English. This is a stark contrast to the education of his mother, who (in the 1850s at least) was illiterate.

He married Laura Symons and had six children, five of them daughters. They were Ida, Liela, Gladys (b.1894 at Beechworth), Erskine, Enid and Beryl. The only son, Erskine, was killed in action in France during the First World War.

At Beechworth, Edward Poynton became the principal of Beechworth College, and it is in a book presented as a prize that he is described as having a Master of Arts degree. Beechworth was a gold mining town, and in the 1900s was in decline. Edward moved to Kalgoorlie, where he was the principal of the South Boulder Primary School.

The electoral rolls for 1916 and 1920 list him as a teacher, resident at 9 Croesus St, Kalgoorlie. His daughter Laura Gladys married Charles Hartley Stokes. From Kalgoorlie, he moved to Perth, becoming the Principal of the Teacher Training College at Claremont. He wrote an English text which was for many years a standard text for West Australian students.

He was very fond of classical literature and had readings to his grandchildren frequently. Valerie Lynn (nee Stokes) found these sessions somewhat ponderous. Her twin brother Irwin had his best academic performance in literature.

Edward Poynton was a tall man with an abundant shock of white hair. He married twice, the second time to Alice, who I remember as a very old woman on visits to her home in South Perth in the 1950s. She died during the 1950s, a few years after Edward's death after breaking his leg in 1949, at the age of 88. The photograph at the top of the page shows him with with other members of the Poynton family at Mungedar Station, in about 1928. You can also see a reasonable portrait of Edward Poynton taken in the 1930s.

Return to Irwin Poynton.

Exit from the homepage altogether.