Thursday 23rd March 1916

Front line trenches west of Angres

There were further, considerable exchanges of fire from rifle grenades and trench mortars, causing serious casualties in the Battalion. Four men were killed outright and one officer and three other ranks wounded. The four men killed would be buried alongside Pte. Ernest Varley (see 20^th March) at Tranchee de Mecknes, near Aix Noulette. These were Ptes. Harry Briggs (16040) (see below); James Frainey (see below); William Haste (see 7^th October 1915); and William Henry Jowett. Jowett had been photographed in the trenches near Bois Grenier along Lt. Dick Bolton in January (see 11^th January). The wounded men were evacuated via one of the field ambulance units and then onboard No. 22 Ambulance Train. One of the wounded men, Cpl. Harry Wain (see below), died at 23^rd Casualty Clearing Station and would be buried at Lapugnoy Military Cemetery. The officer wounded was Lt. Leonard Norman Phillips (see 27^th August 1915). The other two wounded men were Pte. Harry Ambler (see 7^th October 1915); he suffered shrapnel wounds to the chest and a compound fracture to his left arm and would be evacuated to 58^th (West Riding) Casualty Clearing Station at Lillers. Pte. Robert Wilson Irving (see 16^th January) was reported as having been “knocked down by a shell burst”; he would be treated locally in the first instance for a recurrence of the shellshock which had seen him spend four months in hospital following a similar incident in September 1915. Harry Briggs was a 34 year-old married man with two children; he was from Sowerby Bridge, where he had worked as a wire trimmer at Sterne Mill. Lt. Phillips would write to Pte. Briggs’ widow, “It is with the greatest regret that I have to inform you of the death of Pte. Briggs which took place on March 23^rd. He was with one of the sentry groups in the front line when a German rifle grenade fell amongst us, killing four and wounding three others. I would have written at once but I was one of the wounded, and, being in hospital, I have not been able to get your address until today. Pte. Briggs was always ready to do his duty cheerfully and well. I feel that I have lost a good man and the Army a brave soldier. Extending you sincerest sympathy”. She would also receive a letter from the Battalion Chaplain, Rev. Wilfred Leveson Henderson (see 17^th January); “I am writing to express my deep sympathy with you in the loss of your husband. He was killed last Thursday, March 23^rd. A German rifle grenade burst in our fire trenches, wounding an officer and killing your husband and three others. We buried them at night in a soldier’s cemetery behind the trenches. A cross will be put up to mark your husband’s grave. Both the officers and men join with me in expressing deep sympathy. Believe me, I know how great is your loss. It will be some comfort for you to know that your sorrow is shared by so many others. In the bitterness of your sorrow you must have mingled feelings of pride at the splendour of the sacrifice he has made. We may feel sure that he has pleased God. God bless and strengthen you in your sorrow”. James Frainey was 34 years old and originally from County Mayo; he had been living and working (as a builder’s labourer) in Sowerby Bridge prior to enlisting in May 1915. Harry Wain was a 28 year-old coal miner from Heckmondwike and had been a n original member of the Battalion; he was married with four children.

J.B. Priestley, writing many years later, was much less enthusiastic about the effects of the British retaliatory fire, “Up in the line, what we did mind, what soon began to get us down, were the Minenwerfers, the big trench-mortars; and at Souchez we always appeared to have the Minenwerfer specialists against us. Often we asked for their attention; not us, the ordinary infantry who had to stay in the front line, but the Brigade, the Division, the Corps and the Army. What happened all too often was that our own specialists would rush their Stokes guns up into the support trenches, blast away for quarter of an hour, and then hurry off with their infernal things to where their transport was waiting. Pampered and heartless fellows – that is how we regarded them – lunatic experts who had to interfere, off they went to some back area, to roofs and beds and estaminets, beer and wine, chips and eggs; while we poor devils, left behind in holes in the ground, now had to face the anger of the Boches they had been strafing. The Minenwerfer teams got to work on us. Up and then down came those monstrous canisters of high explosive, making hell’s own din when they landed, blasting or burying us. If there was any infantryman who was not afraid of those things, who was not made uneasy by any rumours they would shortly be arriving, I never met him. Perhaps because they were such short-range affairs’ perhaps because if you were on the alert, looking and listening hard, you could just dodge them, perhaps because they made such a hellish row, they frightened us more than bullets, bombs, shells of all calibres. And in around Souchez we crouched below a nest of them”.

Lt. Leonard Norman Phillips had joined the Army on the outbreak of war and had become one of the original officers of ‘D’ Company. He was born in 1886 and was the only surviving child of Rev. Owen Phillips and his wife, Edith. Phillips had followed his father’s calling and, after attending Haileybury School, had been ordained in 1912.

 

Five of the Battalion casualties lie together at Tranchee de Mecknes Cemetery

Pte. Thomas Warburton (see 22^nd January) was injured while on duty. According to the official account, Warburton, at around 11.15pm, “was one of the sentry groups, he went to his dug out for his ground sheet and coming up the steps from his dug out on his return he stepped on a cartridge case. This was the cause of his fall to the bottom of the steps where his rifle exploded and cut his little finger on his right hand”. Further detail as added in statements from two other members of ‘’D’ Company. L.Cpl. George Peacock (see 21st March) stated that, “about 11pm it was my duty to relieve the guard in one of the saps in the firing line. I came to the dugout where Pte. Warburton was sleeping and warned him that it was time for him to go on guard with Pte. Beatty. As he was climbing the steps from the dugout the accident occurred but I am unable to state the exact cause”. Pte. James Beatty (see 11^th September 1915) stated that, “Pte. Warburton and I were warned for sap guard together. I got out of the dugout and was standing in the communication trench and was calling to Pte. Warburton as he came up the steps. Suddenly his rifle went off and narrowly missed hitting me. I asked him whether he had forgotten to put on the safety catch and he replied that he had put it on when he had come out of the sap the previous time at 9pm. He was alone on the steps of the dugout when the accident happened. The time was about 11.15pm”. Warburton’s injuries were minor; “right hand little finger has slight gunshot wound and palm of hand near fingers is blackened with powder”. However, he was admitted via 69^th Field Ambulance to 9^th Casualty Clearing Station. He would be discharged two days later and immediately placed under arrest awaiting trial by Field General Court Martial due to the self-inflicted nature of his wound.

L.Cpl. George Peacock

Image by kind permission of 'Menofworth'

Having received confirmation of the award of the DCM to Sgt Kayley Earnshaw (see 9^th March), Capt. Tunstill, was able to write to Kayley’s wife to offer his congratulations. His pleasure was all the greater because he had known Earnshaw in civilian life, when Kayley worked as a gardener for Tunstill’s friend Dudley Illingworth at Hanlith Hall; “I write to tell you how glad and proud I am that your husband has won the D.C.M. None deserves it more, and no one is more proud than I am that he has won it. I believe it will be the first D.C.M. ever brought to Malhamdale, and Malhamdale ought and will be proud and grateful to the brave man who has done the Dale this honour.”

Sgt. Kayley Earnshaw
Image by kind permission of Sue Lugton.

The War Office wrote to Charles Frederick Wolfe offering him appointment as, “Transport Officer to a Unit in one of the New Armies. Your duties would comprise the care of animals and vehicles belonging to the Unit … you will be granted a temporary Commission as Lieutenant and receive the pay and allowances of that rank. You would first be required to pass a medical examination by an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps”.  He would, in due course, become Transport Officer to 10^th Battalion. Wolfe was a 47 year-old married man who had spent many years in South Africa before returning to the UK in 1912; he was a self-employed horse breeder.

Following one months’ hospital treatment for ‘trench foot’, Pte. Patrick Conley (see 25^th February) was discharged and posted to 23^rd Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, en route to a return to active service.

Pte. George William Fletcher (see 8^th March) was discharged from 4^th Stationery Hospital at Arques and would re-join the Battalion.

L.Cpl Fred Helliwell Baume (see 12^th March), serving with 18^th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, was posted to England to begin officer training; he would later join 10DWR.