Sunday 25th April 1915

In billets at Maidstone

Pte. Fred Atkinson (see below) was reported by Sgt. Henry Carrodus (see 25th January) for “disobeying Battalion orders; ie, smoking a cigarette on church parade”; on the orders of Capt. Robert Harwar Gill (see 21^st March) he was to be confined to barracks for five days.

Fred Atkinson was a 37 year-old carter from Brighouse; he had enlisted in September 1914 and had previously served as a regular soldier with the 1^st Battalion West Ridings, including in the South African War.

Priestley wrote a letter home from his new billets at 1 Melville Road, Maidstone;

“We left Folkestone last Friday (23rd April) afternoon, and came along here by train. Every morning the Battalion are journeying by train to a certain spot (I cannot name the place) there to construct some elaborate trenches which are part of London’s defence scheme. We are in private houses again; four of us stopping a big, rambling corner house, where we have one room for an office I think we shall be back in Folkestone district in about a fortnight. … We are having beautiful weather” (he  went on to describe how he had been boating on the River Medway).

He also reported on speculation about what the future might hold for 10^th Battalion; “There is a very widespread rumour that we are destined for the Dardanelles or Egypt”. This was written on the very day that the ill-fated allied landings began at Gallipoli.