Monday 26th June 1916

Longueau

After the arduous journey of the previous days, the day was set aside for rest. The weather, meanwhile, took a marked turn for the worse, with showers during the day and heavy rain overnight.

Meanwhile the Divisional Trench Mortar Battery, already in position in the Auchonvillers sector on the Somme (see 16^th June), began to take their part in the bombardment of the German lines ahead of the planned advance. Over the course of the next five days they would fire a total of over eight hundred rounds before being withdrawn on 30^th June.

Pte. Robert Sylvester Downey was appointed (unpaid) Lance Corporal. He was an original member of the Battalion, having enlisted in Halifax in September 1914, aged 19; originally from Liverpool, he had been working as a driller for an engineering company in Middlesbrough.

Pte. Robert Moody (see 16^th March) was reported by Sgt. Herbert Lawton (see 14^th March) and Cpl. Wilfred Blackburn (see 22^nd May) for “eating his emergency rations without permission’; on the orders of Lt. Col. Sidney Spencer Hayne (see 23^rd June) he was to undergo eight days Field Punishment no.2.

Ptes. William Peter Allen (see 11^th September 1915) and Thomas Robson (see 7^th April) were ordered to undergo 14 days’ Field Punishment no.2; the nature of their offence is unknown.

Pte. Robert Cresswell (see 7^th June) was transferred from no.2 Canadian General Hospital at Le Treport to the nearby no.3 Convalescent Hospital to continue his recovery following treatment for haemorrhoids.

Formal confirmation was sought from the offices of the most senior officers in the Army (Chief of the Imperial General Staff; Adjutant General and Quarter Master General) that 2Lt. William Neville Dawson (see 24^th June), who had been reported as being unfit to continue as a platoon officer, and had recently returned to England, should be called upon to resign his commission.

Cpl. Archie Allen (see 11^th June),serving with the Army Service Corps in France, was discharged to duty having been treated in hospital for the previous two weeks following a bout of tonsillitis; he would later serve as a commissioned officer with 10DWR.

A grant of probate was confirmed in favour of Fred Pickles in the administration of the estate of his late brother 2Lt. Harry Thornton Pickles (see 19^th June). His effects were valued at £79 15s.

2Lt. Harry Thornton Pickles