Saturday 16th September 1916

Billets at Millencourt

Training continued; various inspections were carried out and the Battalion bombers were given practice in throwing live bombs. 

L.Cpl. Richard Cleasby Chorley (see 4^th April), was granted “Class I Proficiency Pay”, which would see him paid an additional 6d. per day on top of his standard 1s. per day. Proficiency pay could be awarded on the basis of long service or in relation to particular skills or qualifications; the details under which Chorley received his award are not stated.

L.Cpl. William Hutchinson (see 3^rd August) who had suffered shrapnel wounds to his scalp on 3^rd August, was discharged from 2^nd Convalescent Depot at Rouen and re-joined the Battalion. Ptes. James Arthur Heap (see 29^th June), who had been away from the Battalion since being taken ill with influenza in May, and Thomas Lloyd (see 18^th August) and Charlie Wilman (see 15^th August), both of whom had been wounded on 29^th July, also re-joined the Battalion from 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples.

L.Cpl. John Henry Eastwood (see 29^th July) was discharged from 6^th Convalescent Depot at Etaples and posted to 34^th Infantry Base Depot, also at Etaples. He would remain at Etaples having been declared fit only for permanent base duty.

Capt. Gilbert Tunstill (see 11^th September), who had been injured in a fall from his horse a few days earlier, left 24^th General Hospital at Etaples and was taken to Calais, where he embarked aboard the Hospital Ship ‘Dieppe’ for Dover. Having travelled overnight, on arrival next day in England he would be admitted to 4^th London General Hospital for treatment for ‘synovitis and abrasions to the right knee”.

Capt. Gilbert Tunstill

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Pte. Reginald Jerry Northin (see 26^th August), serving with 11DWR at Brocton Camp, Staffs., was reported ‘Absent from 2pm parade’ and would remain, ‘absent from tattoo until reveille on 17th‘; he would be confined to barracks for four days.

L.Cpl. Walter Maynard Willis (see 23^rd August), who had been in England since having been wounded in July, was posted to 3DWR, but temporarily attached to 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion, based at Gateshead.

Two months after returning to England suffering from shellshock, Pte. William Postill Taylor (see 16^th July)) was posted to 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion, based at Gateshead.

Capt. Thomas Lewis Ingram, DSO, (see 15^th May), RAMC, attd. 1^st Shropshire Light Infantry was reported missing in action; he was the elder brother of Lt. Robert Stewart Skinner Ingram (see 11^th September), who had been one of the original officers of Tunstill’s Company, but had latterly transferred to the RFC. The War Diary of the Shropshire Light Infantry reported that, at Guillemont, “10pm Capt. T.L Ingram, DSO MC, while searching for the wounded at night fails to return”; another man from the RAMC was also reported missing with him. It seems that both were originally buried by the Germans as, in August 1919, their remains were recovered from marked graves at map reference 57c.T.10.c.2.1 (behind German lines at the time) and reburied at Guards’ Cemetery, Les Boeufs.