Sunday 12th March 1916

Billets in Bois de Bouvigny

A quiet day with little to report. After the brutal events of the last tour in the trenches, it is not hard to imagine the feelings of relief which must have swept through the Battalion when they were informed that they were to be withdrawn twenty miles back to Bruay.

Pte. Walter Maynard Willis (see 19^th December 1915) was appointed Lance Corporal.

It was around this time, though the precise date has not been established, that the Battalion received the latest in a series of consignments of ‘comforts’ sent from England as a result of the continuing fund-raising and organisational efforts of Geraldine Tunstill and others (see 25^th February). Capt. Tunstill thanked his wife and her supporters, explaining that the parcels, “arrived just as the men had come out of new trenches which they had taken over, and as they had been having a bad time, and have lost most of their things, they were even more appreciative than usual”.

Pte. Patrick Ferguson was temporarily transferred to 23^rd Divisional Tunnelling Company. He had enlisted in Keighley in January 1915, aged 34 and working as a foundry labourer and had been posted to 10DWR, although he had requested a posting to the Irish Guards to serve alongside his brother.

Trooper Claude Darwin, who had been serving with the Australian Light Horse in Egypt (see 10^th March) was, following his recent release from hospital, transferred to 5^th Australian Army Service Corps (AASC). He was the brother of Tunstill recruit, Pte. Tom Darwin, who had himself been discharged from hospital just two days earlier having been treated for ‘debility’ whilst serving with 10DWR (see 11^th March).

L.Cpl Fred Helliwell Baume submitted his application for a commission; he would later be posted to 10DWR. He was currently serving with ‘D’ Company, 18^th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, having enlisted on 7^th June 1915 and had been in France with his Battalion since 14^th November 1915; he had been promoted Lance Corporal a month after enlisting. Fred Baume was born on 26^th March 1891 in Dewsbury, the second of two children of David James and Sarah Ann Baume. His mother had died when Fred was only a child and he had been brought up by his father who was a School Attendance Officer for West Riding of Yorkshire County Council. Fred had attended University College, Reading, where had had served two years in the OTC and had been working as a Science Master when he volunteered.