Friday 16th June 1916

Billets at Camblain Chatelain

The Battalion formed up at 9.45am and marched eleven and a half miles via Berfay, Bellary and Estree Blanche, to Enquin-les-Mines. The march was duly completed with the Battalion arriving at 3pm. 2Lt. Henry Dawson (see 24^th May), accompanied by an NCO from each Company, had been detailed to follow in rear of the Battalion in order to “pick up any stragglers”. The War Diary reported, “To say the Battalion had such a trying time during the last few days and that only 12 men fell out during the march, it is a very creditable performance”.

The Divisional Trench Mortar Battery, having arrived on the Somme the previous day, began preparing themselves for the part they would play in the British bombardment of the German lines; over the next few days they selected their gun positions in the Auchonvillers sector and began to dig in their guns and carry up large quantities of ammunition.

Cpl. Vincent Edwards (see 3^rd April) serving with 28^th (Reserve) Battalion Royal Fusiliers, having been wounded in February, received a mention in dispatches. He would later be commissioned and join 10DWR.

The weekly edition of the West Yorkshire Pioneer carried an extended report on the recent death of Sgt. Kayley Earnshaw, DCM (see 10^th June).

SERGT. KAYLEY EARNSHAW, D.C.M., KILLED

News was received on Wednesday that Sergt. Kayley Earnshaw, D.C.M., of 10th West Yorks. (sic.), had been killed in action by a trench bomb. The news was received by Sergeant Earnshaw's wife, who resides at Scosthrop, near Airton, and when it became known in Malhamdale great sympathy was expressed for the widow and family. The following letter was received from Captain Tunstill:- "It is with very great sorrow that I have to tell you that your husband was killed yesterday in doing his duty as a brave man. He was taking his machine gun team to the trenches when a trench mortar hit him, and he was killed on the spot. I knew nothing about it until today, and this evening it has been my duty to see him buried. There was no man in this Battalion more respected than your husband. He was one of the few who had won the D.C.M., and he had won the respect and admiration of every officer and man of the Battalion. It is difficult for me to tell you what I think, but I feel his death more perhaps than any other N.C.O. of this Battalion. I remember him as a civilian, and I knew him as a soldier, and you have my sympathy in losing a husband who was a very brave and valiant soldier. I have tonight seen him buried. He is buried some few hundred yards behind the firing line between two little woods. There were not many of us there, but those who were there grieved to lose a man who could be ill spared, and the thought of those there were with you."

Mr. Harry Foster, a machine gun office, wrote:- "No words of mine can adequately express the sympathy which I, and indeed the whole machine gun section, wish to convey to you in your loss. Earnshaw was one of the finest men and the best soldier in the Battalion, and was respected by officers and men alike, and no man had more thoroughly earned the medal which was recently conferred upon him for distinguished conduct in the field. Sergt. Pickles has collected the articles of personal value which he had with him, and is sending them on to you in due course. I cannot say any more to you, except to tell you that he died instantly (I was there just after he was hit), and without suffering any pain, and I can only hope the thought that he died while doing his duty to his King and country, like the man he was, will be some slight comfort and consolation to you."

Sergeant Earnshaw, who enlisted in Captain Tunstill's troop from Airton, went through the Boer War, serving as gunner attached to the 63rd Battery. He was drafted home as an invalid after suffering from fever. He joined the Leeds Royal Artillery at Leeds at the age of 18. He sailed from Bristol in the transport 'Ismore', and the vessel was wrecked off Columbia Point, about 90 miles from Cape Town. After spending some days on land, two gunboats were sent down from Cape Town, but they could not get within 12 miles of the spot, and a transport had to be requisitioned to take the men off. Sergeant Earnshaw was in at the capture of Spion Kop and the relief of Ladysmith.

Before joining Captain Tunstill's troop, Sergt. Earnshaw was under gardener for Mr. Dudley Illingworth at Hanlith Hall. He was highly respected in the district and his wife and two children live at Scosthrop. He earned the D.C.M. in April last. We quote from a report given at the time:- "Sergeant Earnshaw, after his machine gun had been blown up by a shell, succeeded in digging it out, and then got it into working order, all the time being heavily shelled by the Germans, who were only 60 yards away. He also rendered great aid in bandaging up the wounded."

Sergeant Earnshaw leaves a wife and young family, and for them, as well as for his mother and sisters, great sympathy is felt. His youngest brother recently went out to France, and a nephew, who belonged to Carleton, went down on the 'Defence' last week.

 

Sgt. Kayley Earnshaw, DCM

(Image by kind permission of Sue Lugton)