Saturday 4th September 1915

Nort-Leulinghem

The bad weather of the previous few days continued, with further rain falling.

Lt. Dick Bolton (see 27^th August) later recalled that it was in this period that the men, “became more or less accustomed to the smell of French farmyards and were warned and trained to regard every stranger as a German spy”. He also remembered that whilst at Nort-Leulinghem, “there was some disturbance because a pig was missing from one farm; rumour said that it was later found in D Company’s cooker”.

J.B. Priestley (see 14^th August), received from home what he described (in his letter of thanks) as, “your very, very, welcome parcel”. He also gave his family a brief description of his circumstances, “I am writing this in a very dilapidated barn, where we eat, sleep and generally exist. Our food – bully beef and biscuits. It’s all like a dream; the cheering crowds as we left England; the marches on fearful roads with ton-weights on our backs; the long rides in cattle trucks – it’s all like a dream.”


Pte. Harry Shaw (12316) was admitted to 69^th Field Ambulance, suffering from gonorrhoea; next day he would be transferred to 20^th Casualty Clearing Station and from there, via 16^th General Hospital at Le Trport, to 9^th Stationary Hospital at le Havre. He had been an original member of the Battalion, having enlisted in Bradford on 11^th September 1914. He had then been 33 years old, married, with one six year-old son and had been working as a mason.