In the quieter conditions prevailing whilst out of the line a number of men from the Halifax wrote home and their letters would appear in the Halifax Courier (16th October):
“We read in your weekly paper, which a lot of us receive from our homes every week, that you would like the names and addresses of the Halifax lads in our Battalion. Sorry we cannot get to know the names of all, but have got them in A Company. We have been around to all and enclose a list of the men and the articles we are mostly in need of at present. A lot of the things mentioned it is impossible to get here, and things that we could buy are very dear indeed; forinstance a 2d. tablet of soap costs 5d.
We are behind the firing line, after having a fairly rough time in the trenches, and we are not sorry to come out, as the last three days we had rain and were over the boot-tops in water and sludge, and it felt a treat to be able to take our boots off and part with the mud, thick on boots and puttees, and get on clean, dry socks. We were in the big bombardment recently, when the Allied troops made headway. I think, by the number of shells that dropped in our trenches, we came out of it very lucky, only having about six casualties in our Company. We think the Battalion is upholding the Dukes’ good name. We stuck 12 days in the firing line in our first taste of trench life, so we got a good breaking-in. We might also say we had our best bit of luck when, about two days after leaving the trenches, we got a good hot bath and a claen change of underclothing, which made us feel new men, ready to face the baby-killers again. Hope single men left in England will come forward and help their fellow comrades to drive the Huns into their own land.
Yours respectfully
R. Swallow and J. Smith, 3rd Platoon, for the Halifax lads in A Company.
Pte. Richard Swallow was a 25 year-old power loom overlooker from Halifax and was married, with one daughter. Pte. John Smith (13487) was 26 years old and from Halifax, where he had worked as a ‘teamer’ for the Lancs. and Yorks. Railway; he had served in the Territorials before the war and had initially re-joined his territorial battalion before being transferred to 10DWR whilst in training in England. He was officer’s servant to 2Lt. Harry Harris (see 27th August).
There was also a letter from Pte. William Henry Jones (see below):
“We are resting. We had a share in the glorious advance of last month and which, if not a very prominent one, was a link in the chain. Our artillery had a very violent duel with the enemy, and the screaming and explosion of shells, the rattle of machine guns and the sharp spit of thousands of bullets against the parapet, made you think of Dante’s Inferno. We were prepared to advance but the order was not given … Ptes. Holmes, Cross Hills, and Siddall, Ripponden, are the only local men I am aware of who were wounded”.
William Henry Jones was a 33 year-old compositor from Halifax; he was married but had no children.
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