Wednesday 14th October 1914

Pte. Harry Wood was reported by Sgt. John William Headings as ‘absent from 6pm parade’; on the orders of Maj. Hallet (unidentidied) he was to be confined to barracks for three days. 

Harry Wood had enlisted, aged 19 in Middlesbrough on 6^th September 1914; he had been working as a brickyard labourer. Sgt. John William Headings was one of the ex-regulars who had been posted to 10^th Battalion in September 1914 to provide them with experienced NCOs. He was one of three brothers who were all serving with the Battalion. John William Headings was 31 years old when he re-enlisted in 1914 and had previously served ten years in the Regular Army and a further two on the Reserve. He was a married man (indeed he was twice married, his first wife having died in 1907) and had four children under the age of six. Prior to enlisting he had been working as a foreman painter and decorator for Messrs. Seed and Ingham in Halifax. John William’s younger brother, James Lawrence Headings, had enlisted a few days before his older brother, and the third brother, Henry George Headings, had enlisted at York on 8^th February 1915 and had been posted to 10^th Battalion two months later.

The three Headings brothers, from left to right, James Lawrence, John William (standing) and Henry George.

Image by kind permission of Jill Monk

Ptes. George Clark (see 13^th October) and John Thomas Cockerill (see 13^th October), who had been reported absent without leave from Frensham on Tuesday 6th October, appeared at the Police Court in Settle before local magistrates Mr. T. Delaney and Mr. Thomas Brayshaw (he had been prominent in the planning and execution of Tunstill's recruitment campaign). The Craven Herald reported that, both men "pleaded guilty and admitted to being deserters. In answer to Mr. Brayshaw, Clark said he had surrendered himself in the hope that he would be taken back to camp but Cockerill made no statement. Both prisoners were remanded to await a military escort."