Friday 7th July 1916

Bivouac in fields south of Albert

Following a 4 am reveille the men were ordered to be ready to move off at 6 am, equipped with two days’ iron rations. The Battalion duly moved forward, via Becourt Wood, to captured German trenches just west of Lozenge Wood, around 300 yards in rear of where they had been in action on the 5^th. With heavy rain on and off throughout the day, “Conditions were appalling. The flooded trenches where men could scarcely drag along, were now congested with killed and wounded”. The Battalion, along with 11^th West Yorks, was now placed temporarily under the command of 24^th Infantry Brigade which had suffered heavy losses in the actions around Contalmaison; this meant that they would remain in close support positions whilst the remainder of 69^th Brigade (8^th and 9^th Yorkshires) was temporarily withdrawn to be prepared for a renewed attempt to capture Contalmaison.

However, things were immeasurably more difficult for the men of 24^th and 68^th Brigades who were engaged in the renewed attacks on Contalmaison. These had begun with an artillery barrage from dawn. However, the main infantry assault was delayed and the attacking troops found themselves, not only “dragged down by the weight of sodden equipment and blinded by torrents of rain … operating over flooded ground, water-filled craters, and trenches waist-deep in mud” but also  facing fierce German resistance. Despite this, British troops did manage to enter Contalmaison, but were unable to secure and hold the positions. By nightfall, “the capture had not been effected, but the grip on Contalmaison had been tightened”.

One of the many casualties in this renewed fighting around Contalmaison was Pte. John Reginald Butterfield, who was killed in action with 9DWR. He had originally been a member of Tunstill’s Company, having been one of the Keighley recruits who had been added to Tunstill’s original volunteers. He had attested in September 1914, at which point he was actually only 15 ½ years old. The widespread practice of young men, eager to serve, enlisting in the army though under age is well known and there are numerous examples among Tunstill’s Men. Butterfield appears to have been the youngest of Tunstill’s Company; he had been born in Keighley on 24^th March 1899. In 1914 John was working, as were his father and elder brother Fred, in Keighley for Messrs. Dean, Smith and Grace Ltd., who manufactured lathes and other precision engineering equipment. Fred, who was eight years older than John, had joined the territorial army in May 1911, signing up for four years’ service with the 6^th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. On the outbreak of war Fred was called up for full-time service with the Battalion. In June 1915 Fred Butterfield’s engineering background meant that he was attached for duty with the engineering and armaments company Messrs Armstrong Whitworth & Co., at their site at Elswick, near Newcastle upon Tyne. In January 1916 he had been transferred back to his original employers, Dean, Smith and Grace.

John had clearly been eager to follow a similar path to his brother and attested on 20^th September in Keighley. At some point (date unknown) before the departure of 10DWR to France in August 1915, John Butterfield had been transferred and he only arrived in France in February 1916, being posted to 9DWR. Shortly before his death, John’s mother had written to his commanding officer, asking, on account of his age, if her son could be transferred back to England. John Butterfield has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Pte. John Reginald Butterfield

Lt. Dick Bolton (see 30^th June) re-joined the Battalion, having spent the previous week at 69^th Field Ambulance, being treated for inflammation of the face and neck. 

Lt. Dick Bolton

Photo by kind permission of Henry Bolton

L.Cpl. George Oversby (see 8^th December 1915) who had been appointed to the rank, unpaid, seven months earlier, was at last confirmed in his rank and awarded pay accordingly.

L.Cpl. Tom Jackson Tindall (see 20^th June) was evacuated to England from 8^th British Red Cross Hospital at Paris-Plage; he had been suffering from influenza. On arriving in England he would be admitted to the City of London Military Hospital in Clapton and treated for “neuralgia and tonsillitis”.

Official notice was given to 2Lt. William Neville Dawson (see 26^th June), now back in England, that a decision had been made in the long-running investigation into his fitness to serve as an officer with 10DWR. The letter stated, “I am commanded by the Army Council to inform you that in view of the reports submitted by the Military Authorities, under whom you were serving overseas, it has been decided that you should relinquish your temporary commission. The requisite notification confirming this decision will appear in an early issue of the London Gazette”.

2Lt. Arthur Poynder Garratt (see 29^th June), who had been serving with 9DWR but would later join 10DWR, appeared before a Medical Board convened at RAM Hospital, Millbank, London. The Board found that, “he was accidentally injured whilst wrestling on 22^nd June 1916 at Amiens, France. He sustained a simple fracture of left fibula. Admitted to this hospital 29^th June; has done well but requires further rest and treatment”. He was declared unfit for any service for two months.

The weekly edition of the Craven Herald published a poem written in memory of Sgt. Kayley Earnshaw, DCM (see 1^st July), who had been killed a month earlier; the poem had been written by Rev. William Joseph Gomersall who had preached a sermon in support of Gilbert Tunstill’s original recruitment campaign in September 1914 (see 13^th September 1914).

Sgt. Kayley Earnshaw, DCM

Photo by kind permission of Sue Lugton

THE POET'S CORNER

SONGS OF THE GREAT WAR SERIES

No. XX11. - SON OF SCOSTHROP

(In memory of Sergeant Kayley Earnshaw, D.C.M., West Riding Regiment, of Scosthrop, Airton - Killed in action in France last month. He was the first to bring the Distinguished Conduct Medal to Malhamdale, but lost his life before being presented with it.)

Mourn, Scosthrop, mourn, thy gallant son-
His Craven hamlet's pride-
As brave a man behind the gun
As ever crossed the tide.

The medal, which he never wore
Upon his manly breast,

Was won amidst the cannon's roar,
In battle's sorest test.

His gun, which bursting shell 'dug in,'
He gallantly 'dug out'-

His only thought-how best to win,
And put the foe to rout.

Yet he was just as kind as brave
'Neath raking fire of shell,

Intent to bandage and to save
The wounded where they fell.

Brave, gallant son, we mourn him dead,
Who thus obeyed the call

To join the lads by Tunstill led,
Upon the fields of Gaul.

For country left he weans and wife,
To stand behind the gun-

Not loth to offer up his life
That freedom may be won.

Such are the men who've helped to earn
The peace we hope to see,

When battle's tide at length we turn
To final victory.

Such are the men who've helped to strike
The hour of great advance-

God speed that hour and all their like
Upon the fields of France.

(Rev.) W.J. Gomersall. Hampstead, July, 1916.
Gomersall had himself suffered the loss of his nephew in action on 1^st July when Lt. William Ellis Gomersall had been killed in the attack of 22^nd Manchesters at Mametz. Not only was he W.J. Gomersall’s nephew, but he was also engaged to be married to his daughter. May. Lt. Gomersall has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.