Monday 25th September 1916

Bivouacs in and around Shelter Wood

The day was again bright and hot. Arrangements were made for the whole Battalion to take a bath and the men were afterwards provided with clean underclothes. It is not clear exactly how this was carried out and the Brigade War Diary refers to men bathing in Albert and Becourt. However, the process of bathing in this area in August had been described by a man of the 7^th/8^th King’s Own Scottish Borderers, “near Shelter Wood … A bath was made by digging a large pit, which was then lined with a sail-cloth and filled with water from the water-carts, with a dash of creosol added for hygienic reasons”.

There was continued shelling by the British and a concerted response by the Germans in the late afternoon and early evening. One heavy shell landed very close to the Battalion HQ Mess, killing one man and wounding another. The man killed was Pte. Ernest Balmforth; it seems likely that he was originally buried locally but that the grave was subsequently lost, and he is now commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. Ernest Balmforth was a 23 year-old blacksmith from Huddersfield; he had originally served with 2DWR, going out to France in August 1914 and had been wounded near La Bassee in October 1914. In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to establish exactly when, or under what circumstances, he had joined 10DWR. 

The man wounded may have been Pte. George Harold Toseland DCM, who was on attachment to 10DWR from 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment; he would die of his wounds the same day and would be buried at Peake Wood Cemetery. Pte. Toseland was 22 years old, unmarried and from Kettering. He had been awarded the DCM while serving with 2nd Northants "for consistently good work as an orderly in the trenches. He has always got through with his messages quickly, though often under shell and rifle fire. His services to the Battalion have been invaluable".

Two other men also appear in the official records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as having been killed on this day and are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. However, Ptes. Harold Heeley and Harold Hinchcliffe had actually been among a draft of thirty men originally destined for 10DWR but who had been attached to 10^th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry after arriving in France on 8^th July and were serving with that Battalion in an attack near Guedecourt when they were killed. A third man, Pte. Arthur Hewitson, was wounded and died three days later in hospital in Newcastle; he is also officially recorded as 10DWR but had also been attached to 10^th KOYLI. He was 30 years old, from Baildon, and had only been married for four months.

Pte. William Currey (see 17^th July), who had been on attachment to 10DWR for the previous two months, was now formally transferred to the Battalion.

Pte. William Frederick Ackrill (see 11^th September 1915) was admitted via 1^st (Northumbrian) Field Ambulance to a Rest Station (details unknown). He was suffering from “P.U.O” (pyrexia, or high temperature, of unknown origin); this would subsequently be ascribed to influenza.

Two officer cadets were formally commissioned Second Lieutenant and posted, initially, to 3^rd (Reserve) Battalion DWR; both would later join 10DWR. Cpl. John Robert Dickinson, (see 19^th May), formerly 18^th Royal Fusiliers, completed his officer training with no.4 Officer Cadet Battalion, based at Oxford. Pte. Arthur Calvert Tetley (see 27^th May), formerly 21^st Royal Fusiliers, completed his training with no.10 Officer Cadet Battalion at Gailes, Ayrshire.

Ronald Ferguson completed his attestation papers to join the Inns of Court OTC; once commissioned he would serve with 10DWR. He was 18 years old (born 2^nd July 1898) and had just completed his studies at Winchester College, where he had been a member of the OTC. He was one of five children of George and Mary Ferguson; his father was a successful and prosperous stock and share dealer on the London Stock Exchange and the family lived in some style in Weybridge, Surrey, with a staff of seven servants.