Tuesday 12th October 1915

Bois Grenier Line trenches

The weather remained fine and conditions in the sector very quiet.

One of Tunstill’s fellow officers, Capt. Adrian O’Donnell Pereira of ‘D’ Company was taken ill; a subsequent medical report recorded that, “his illness began on 12^th October while in the trenches with diarrhoea and severe vomiting; he could not keep anything in his stomach for several days. He had headaches and a temperature of 102 degrees”. However, in the short term he remained with his Company.

Capt. Adrian O'Donnell Pereira

Pte. William Knox (see 10^th October) wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters).

“... Well Dear I have not been in trenches as yet but expect going any moment now. We are in reserve. We are billeted at a pub so we are all right when we run dry (I don’t think). It is a very nice part where we are staying but they say the lower end of the town is simply a mass of ruins. We could hear the shells bursting over us yesterday and what gets over me the people seem as unconcerned as though nothing was happening. They seem as happy as if it was peace time. We seem to have got some very nice officers. In fact we are as much at home in this Battalion as we were in our own. Everyone seems as though they want to help us. Jim McMath (Pte. James McMath, see 7^th October) is in the trenches; been in since Sunday. I expect we shall go and relieve them before many more days. It seems a little bit quieter here just now but on Sunday it was one continual rumble all day long. We see many an airship flying about. We’ve seen six in the air at once and could see the German shells bursting all about them but they did not touch them. My address is Pte. W. Knox, no.14186, A Company, 10^th Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, BEF. I have got a very nice pal, L.Cpl. Gregan (L.Cpl. Owen Gregan, see 7^th October), one from our own Battalion; he used to be the Doctor’s orderly. I came across Sgt. Fricker’s son (Pte. George Wallace Fricker, see 16^th April 1915) last Sunday, but he is not in my Company. When you write let me know whether you received those things I left at Lichfield when we came away. It is a job to understand the people here and the money takes some reckoning up. It is the Francs that is equal to 10d. in our own money. You ought to see us in a morning. We have to cook our own breakfast. … Do not forget to send me a new razor as the one I have got will not shave me at all. You will think it was a rotten little letter I sent you and it was all about things I wanted. You will be thinking that I am always in wants. …. Do not forget to send me a Green Un (this was the nickname for the local Sheffield Saturday evening sports newspaper) to look at as it will pass the time on. We can get English papers every here every morning but it is all war and we shall see plenty of that without reading about it. … My word it is different over here to what it was in England. You see no young men strolling about the streets. It is a shame the young men at home who are slackers. It is about time something was done to make them all enlist. If they had only gone through half what the poor devils out here have done they would do their little bit for the dear old country. I am glad I listed, as when this war is all over and what is left of us we shall be able to say that we did our little share to save the Motherland from a brutal enemy. …

PS You can send me some more of that oatmeal soap as I have only 1 pot left and it is very dear out here. You have to pay pretty dear for everything”.

Cpl. William Johnson Simpson (see 11^th September), serving in France with 12^th West Yorks, was promoted Corporal; he would later be commissioned and serve with 10DWR.