Thursday 28th October 1915

Billets at Estaires

The weather remained very wet and the Battalion again provided large working parties in support of the Royal Engineers. Orders were received that the Battalion was to be prepared to relieve 1^st Worcesters in reserve trenches near Fauquissart.

Pte. William Knox (see 27^th October) again wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters).

“… Tell Lizzie her lemon tarts are champion. There were four of them smashed so I ate them for my supper. The parkin bun was very nice too. Parcels are very nice and very acceptable out here I can tell you. I have tried the Oxo Patent and it works very well. It only took it ten minutes to boil it so we shall be able to make some of a cold night. We have heard today that we are going into the trenches again on Saturday night but not in the firing line, but we are nowhere safe in the reserve trenches as they shell them very often. … The Serbians seem to be in a very serious state by what the papers said the other morning. It would be a jolly good job when this rotten war is all over so we can all get home to the ones we love so well. The weather is absolutely rotten here just at present. It is raining again all day today. I pity the poor soldiers in the trenches. They will be wet through and they will have to stick it just the same”.

Pte. Willie Marsden (see 20^th October), who had only re-joined the Battlion the previous day following treatment for eczema, was admitted to 60^th Field Ambulance with a diagnosis of scabies. He would be treated for a week before being discharged to re-join the Battalion on 5^th November.

Pte. John Beaumont was transferred to the Motor Transport Section of the Army Service Corps. He was an original member of the Battalion, having enlisted in Bradford on 22^nd September 1914, aged 25 and working as an electroplater.