Tuesday 4th April 1916

Front line trenches west of Angres

The day was much colder and dull but passed off without incident. Orders were received that the Battalion would be relieved overnight by 9^th Yorkshires and would return to their former billets in and around the pithead known as Fosse 10, at Sains en Gohelle. From their position in the support trenches Tunstill’s Company provided guides (from 7pm) to direct the relieving troops into their front line positions. In addition to the usual arrangements for the relief orders were issued that, “extra bandoliers, at present on the men, will be handed over to the relieving unit … (and) … all gum boots will be carried out around the man’s neck and will be handed in to the Brigade gum boot store on the way to the billets”; the recent improvement in the weather had clearly been enough to obviate the need for gum boots in the line. The relief was completed, without casualties, around midnight.

Pte. George Edward Western (see 21^st March) was reported as having been ‘found in bed after reveille’; on the orders of Capt. James Christopher Bull MC (see 21^st March) he would be confined to barracks for seven days.

Pte. Thomas Warburton (see 23^rd March), who had been held in detention since suffering a self-inflicted wound to his right hand two weeks previously, appeared before a Field General Court Martial. The Court found that, “even admitting the man’s statement is true, the accident was due to carelessness in carrying a rifle with the safety catch up” and therefore found him guilty of “negligently wounding himself”. He was ordered to undergo 56 days Field Punishment no.1.

Lt. Dick Bolton (see 28^th March), one of Tunstill’s fellow officers with ‘A’ Company, re-joined, following one weeks’ leave to England.

Pte. Roy Sayles joined the Battalion. He was an apprentice tailor from Huddersfield; he had enlisted in August 1915 and had given his age as 19, although he was in fact only 16 at the time (born 29^th September 1898).

CSM Robert Cameron Watson, who had been wounded the previous day, died in the care of 23^rd Casualty Clearing Station; he was buried at Lapugnoy Military Cemetery.

Pte. Tom Darwin (see 28^th March) re-joined the Battalion from the Infantry Base Depot at Etaples where he had spent the previous two weeks following a spell in hospital.

L.Cpl. Richard Cleasby Chorley (see 31^st March), on leave in England, following recent treatment for scabies, applied for a one day extension of his leave due to having been delayed on his homeward train journey. He was currently staying at the Bull Hotel, Sedbergh, where his father was landlord. His application was accepted and his leave extended to 10^th April.