Monday 16th October 1916

Billets in Poperinghe

A quiet day was spent cleaning and checking clothing and equipment. 

Lt. Dick Bolton (see 5^th October) returned to France on the expiry of his extended leave. Bolton was now one of only four officers remaining with the Battalion from those who had originally arrived in France less than fourteen months earlier. The others were Major Robert Harwar Gill (see 12^th October), Lt. Leonard Norman Phillips (see 15^th October), the Battalion Quartermaster Lt. Daniel William Paris Foster (see 4^th July) and the Battalion Chaplain, Rev. Wilfred Leveson Henderson (see 5^th July).

Lt. Dick Bolton

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Lt. Leonard Norman Phillips

Image by kind permission of Scott Flaving

CQMS Andrew Hermiston (see 29^th December 1915) was admitted via 69^th Field Ambulance and 23^rd Division Rest Station to 25^th General Hospital at Hardelot; he was suffering from impetigo and scabies.

Pte. James Duncan Foster (see 17^th July) was admitted to 2^nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station, suffering from scabies; he would then be transferred to 25^th General Hospital at Hardelot.

After spending six weeks at 13^th Stationery Hospital at Etaples having treatment to his eyes for injuries caused by the effects of gas, Pte. Herbert Kitley (see 31^st August) was discharged to 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, pending a return to active service.

Official confirmation of the death of Pte. Percy Hodgson (see 13^th October) reached his family in Tosside; he had been severely wounded at Le Sars, and had died three days previously at no.2 General Hospital, Rouen.

Pte. Percy Hodgson

A Medical Board assembled at the Military Hospital, York considered the case of Capt. Gilbert Tunstill (see 7^th October) who had been on sick leave since injuring his right knee when falling from his horse near Amiens in September. The Board found that “he still has some pain and slight swelling of the right knee and walks with a limp.” Tunstill was deemed to be unfit for any service for a further month, at which point another medical board would be convened to review his case

Capt. Gilbert Tunstill

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

2Lt. Howard Thurston Hodgkinson (see 13^th October) who had three days earlier been admitted to 2^nd Western General Hospital, Manchester for treatment for phlebitis, was discharged and granted sick leave to 6^th November. The Lieutenant Colonel in the RAMC who had been treating him later stated, “This officer was under my medical charge during the three days he was in hospital here. I do not think that varicose veins were then present (at any rate in any marked degree). If so I would certainly have made a note of their presence and, as I remember the case, I could find no physical signs of the trouble for which he was transferred to England”.

Mrs. Marian Carpenter, mother of the late of Capt. Herbert Montagu Soames Carpenter (see 23^rd September), who had been killed in action on 5^th July, continued her attempt to secure some financial settlement from the estate of her son; she wrote to the War Office:

Sir

My husband was living in Antwerp when war broke out. He was compelled to leave there; his business was closed up and his income ceased and, having no private means, my allowance from him ceased. Late having been given a temporary commission in the army he has allowed me half of his pay, viz. £2 per week. This, however, will cease when his commission expires, as his business is totally ruined by the war, and he has no private means whatever.

Until his death, my son, Capt. H.M.S. Carpenter allowed me £2 per week (say £100 pa), thus bringing my total income to £4 weekly. I was, therefore, largely dependent on him and, though not a widow, am left in distressed circumstances, my husband having lost his business and income and he, on leaving the army at 56 or over, will have to start afresh.

Waiting your favourable reply,

M.G. Carpenter

 

Capt. H.M.S. Carpenter

A pension award of 10 shillings per fortnight was agreed, payable to Samuel Irving Bell, in respect of his son Pte. Joseph Bell (see 14^th August), who had been reported missing and subsequently presumed killed in action in August while serving with 51^st Battalion, A.I.F. Samuel Bell’s address at the time was stated to be c/o Councillor S. Hebden, St. Giles Street, Padiham, Lancs. Samuel Bell’s younger son, Pte. William Irving Bell, was one of Tunstill’s original recruits and still serving with the Company.