In a postcard written from Frensham Priestley reported that, "Orders for going to Aldershot have been cancelled and we are still at Frensham and may be here all winter. It is very cold but frosty weather is better than wet".
Ernest Cooper became the first of the original recruits to arrive in France for active service. He had enlisted with the Keighley recruits who had joined Tunstill's Company. He was 20 years old and had been working before the war as a clerk in a local worsted factory. Quite why he had been transferred is unknown but at some point during training he had been posted to 2nd Battalion West Ridings, which had originally arrived in France on 16th August. The Battalion had been engaged in heavy fighting since their arrival and had already suffered 250 men killed and many more wounded. Cooper was almost certainly among the draft of 201 men who joined the Battalion on 2nd December. The details of Ernest Cooper's subsequent service are unknown, but he was eventually transferred to the Labour Corps before being formally transferred to Class Z for discharge on 26th March 1919.
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