Saturday 15th April 1916

Front line trenches west of Angres

In order to complete the redistribution of the line ahead of the occupation by 5^th Brigade troops (see 14^th April), 10DWR was to be withdrawn from the front line and replaced by Companies from 8^th Yorkshires and 11^th West Yorkshires as these two Battalions were extended to cover the section hitherto occupied by three Battalions. The three Companies in the front line (including Tunstill’s) were to withdraw to billets at Coron d’Aix but ‘D’ Company, in close support in Mechanics Trench, and the bombing party from that Company, were to remain in position and would not be relieved until the following day. This relief was to be carried out in daylight, starting at 9.30 am, and the Battalion War Diary noted that this was clearly observed by the Germans; “Beautiful morning. The enemy shelled the Bully communication trenches. The shots were well directed”. However, despite the shelling, the Battalion suffered no casualties and the reliefs were complete by noon. On arrival at Coron’d’Aix further orders were received that the Battalion would move again next day. Late in the evening there was considerable activity from German aeroplanes, one of which dropped a number of bombs close to the Battalion billets, but without causing any casualties or damage. 

At Coron d’Aix, command of the Battalion was taken up by Lt. Col. Sidney Spencer Hayne, formerly of 2^nd Northants. Regiment. Lt. Col. Hayne would become “affectionately known to his men as ‘Slasher’ because he invariably had a riding whip coiled round his neck, which he not infrequently slashed and cracked”. As it happened, Lt Col. Hayne would have more than a month to familiarise himself with his new Battalion before they were again posted to the front line and he immediately showed himself to be, “particularly keen on the men’s personal appearance”. The standards expected of his men by Hayne were made evident in his first Battalion orders, issued on the day of his arrival. Although the Battalion would have less than twenty-four hours at Coron d’Aix it was ordered that, “All this afternoon and tomorrow will, subject to marching out parade, be devoted to cleaning. All dry mud to be rubbed off and all boots well dubbed. All mud will be washed from steel helmets. All men must be shaved, and as clean as possible, before marching off.”

This was perhaps not surprising considering Hayne’s background. Not only was he a regular officer with more than fifteen years’ service but, since 1912, he had been a Superintendent, and latterly an Inspector, of Physical Training for the Army. Hayne had been first commissioned in 1899 and had served in India where he had become Superintendent of Gymnasia in Poona. He then became the Army’s Superintendent of Physical Training in May 1912 and was promoted to Inspector of Physical Training in March 1913. He was promoted Major, with 2^nd Northants, in September 1915.

Lt. Col. Sidney Spencer Hayne

Pte. Michael Henry Rourke (see 9^th October 1915) was reported by Cpl. Henry Markham (see 13^th February), and Sgt. Richard Alexander Oliver (see below) for “using abusive or threatening language towards an NCO”; on the orders of Capt. John Atkinson (see 24th December 1915) he was to be confined to barracks for five days.

Richard Alexander Oliver was an original member of the Battalion; he had been promoted Corporal while the Battalion was training in England and had been further promoted (details unknown) in France. He was 36 years old and before the war had been ‘Labour Master’ at the Bradford Workhouse.

The mother of 2Lt. Samuel Lawrence Glover, who had been officially reported as missing since 13^th January (see 17^th January), wrote to the War Office to tell them that she had heard from Cpl. Herbert Waddington’s (see 22nd January) parents that they had received confirmation from the German government, via the US authorities, of their son’s death. They, in turn, requested that further investigations be carried out, especially as they hoped that, “he (Glover) may be badly wounded and in some hospital”. In a postscript she also requested an address to which she might return a goat-skin jacket which had mistakenly been sent to her along with her son’s effects.