Thursday 4th November 1915

Front line trenches near Fauquissart.

Another wet day meant that, as recorded in the War Diary, “Much work on trenches was impossible owing to state of ground and scarceness of R.E. material”. However, despite the conditions a working point from ‘D’ Company was sent out, along with a covering party from ‘B’, under Lt. Leslie Guy Stewart Bolland, to improve the wiring out to within fifty yards of the German lines in the ‘Red Lamp’ sector, on the northern extremity of the Battalion front. J.B Priestley related how he had been among “a crowd of us had to go over the parapet with shovels, crawl through deep water and under barbed wire for about a hundred yards and then start digging about fifty yards from the German lines. But it’s little digging we could do; for they must have heard us, and then sent up six flare-lights right above our heads – we of course being as still as statues. But they spotted us and then the bullets came and we had to get back as best we could. Two were killed outright just near me. And mind you this isn’t a V.C. business, it’s just a ‘Working Party’ in this part in this part of the line.” The German patrol sent out to engage was estimated as being fifty strong and Lt. Bolland, despite his party being almost ‘enveloped’, ensured that the working party was withdrawn before then withdrawing his covering party. Two of his party were wounded and Bolland, according to the Battalion War Diary, “with great coolness & courage got the covering party safely back, himself carrying one of the hit men in on his shoulder”. On returning safely to the British lines Bolland found he had two bullet holes through his coat. He was recommended for, and subsequently received, the Military Cross for his conduct; the citation related the course of the incident and also that “This is not the first time that Lieutenant Bolland’s name has been brought to notice for good service”.

The two men killed were Ptes. James Bradley (11737) and Frederick Ford (see 3^rd May). Like the two men killed in the collapsed dug-out the previous day (see 3^rd November), both were originally buried at Rue-du-Bacquerot (Wangerie Post) New Military Cemetery, which was close to the hamlet of Wangerie, but after the Armistice they would be exhumed and reburied at the Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard, Laventie. In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of James Bradley beyond the fact that he was from Bradford and that his closest living relative was his grandmother, Mary Markham. One of the men wounded was Pte. Archibald Louis Norris (see 4^th May); he was treated in France (details unknown).

Pte. Richard Swallow (see 6^th October) suffered a minor wound to his right foot, when his rifle discharged whilst he was cleaning it; given the self-inflicted nature of his wound he would be put before a Field General Court Martial.

Cpl. Edward Hunter (see 9^th June) was promoted to the rank of Sergeant.

A/CQMS Thomas Doyne (see 24^th July 1915) was admitted to 4^th Stationery Hospital at Arques, suffering from ‘defective vision’; he would be discharged on 16^th November and posted ‘to Base’ (details unknown).

Pte. Joseph Barrett Hartley (see 30^th October) was formally discharged from the Battalion; he had already returned to England to take up a commission.