Friday 24th March 1916

Front line trenches west of Angres

Overnight 23^rd-24^th, there was heavy snowfall and the day was very quiet and both sides suspended any action; “there was practically nothing doing”. The Trench Mortar Battery reported simply, “no firing”.

The Brigade War Diary acknowledged that, “The weather is causing considerable damage to our trenches. Work is proceeding very slowly due to lack of revetting material”. 

L.Cpl. George Holmes (10794) (see 7^th October 1915) departed on one weeks’ leave to England.

Pte. Owen Shaw was posted to France and would join 10DWR. He was a 26 year-old coal miner from Cradley Heath, Staffs. He had been called up in February and had been posted to 3DWR.


Pte. John William Parker (14747) (see 17^th February), who had been in hospital for five weeks after having been evacuated to England suffering from epilepsy, was discharged from the British Military Hospital, Brockenhurst. He was discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service on account of his illness; he was awarded an Army pension (details unknown).

Pte. Carl Parrington Branthwaite (see 15^th March) signed and dated an autograph book kept by a member of the nursing staff at West Ham Red Cross Hospital, Basingstoke; it is not known how much longer he stayed at the hospital, where he was being treated for TB. 

L. Cpl. Philip Howard Morris (see 14^th November 1915), serving in France with 21^st Battalion, Royal Fusiliers was posted back to England to begin his officer training with no.1 Officer Cadet Battalion at Denham, Bucks. He would later be commissioned and serve as an officer with Tunstill’s Company. 

Cpl. Vincent Edwards was released from Beadford War Hospital, Bristol, and awarded ten days’ leave, after spending six weeks being treated for jaundice and the effects of having received shrapnel splinters in his eye and nose. He would later be commissioned and serve with 10DWR. Vincent Edwards was born on 19^th February 1890 in Acton, the youngest of nine children of Thomas James and Matilda Arabella Edwards. His father was a dealer in ‘house furnishings’ and, having attended Scarborough College, Vincent had joined the family business, working alongside a number of his brothers. On the outbreak of war he had enlisted, on 15^th September 1914, with 19^th Royal Fusiliers. He had been promoted Lance Corporal in May 1915 and Corporal in August and went to France with his Battalion in November 1915. He had been wounded on 5^th February 1916 and returned to England nine days later to be admitted to hospital.