Tuesday 17th October 1916

Billets in Poperinghe

In the morning the Battalion was inspected by Brigadier General T.S. Lambert (see passim), commanding 69^th Brigade, who gave a short speech congratulating them on the part they had played on the Somme. He also “spoke of the work which was to be done in the trenches we are about to take over”.

Pte. Joseph Chandler (see 29^th July) was posted back to the Regimental Depot in Halifax (cause unknown).

A large draft of men joined the Battalion, replacing some of the losses suffered in the recent actions. These men had mostly been called up between February and June 1916 and had trained with 3DWR. Most of them had arrived at no.34 Infantry Base Depot at Etaples in September or early October and many had originally been destined to join other battalions of the Dukes before being re-directed to 10DWR.

A number of these men have been identified. Pte. Leonard Ackroyd was a 25 year-old warehouseman from Holywell Brook near Halifax. Pte. Edgar Bairstow was a 21 year-old spinning overlooker from Halifax. Pte. Frank Beaumont was a 19 year-old yarn spinner from Mirfield. Pte. Jesse Barker was a 27 year-old grocer’s assistant from Bradford; he was married but had no children. Pte. Fred Benn was a 19 year-old warehouseman from Halifax. Pte. Joseph Binns (24162) was a 19 year-old railway porter from Halifax. Pte. Ernest Arthur Carter was a 24 year-old shovel maker from Kirkburton; on 21^st September, just ten days before departing for France, he had married Eva Carter. Pte. Albert Chapman was a 37 year-old weaver from Halifax; he was married with two children. Pte. Arthur Chapman was a 22 year-old stonemason from Skipton. Pte. James William Clark was a 21 year-old signwriter from Wibsey, Bradford. Pte. John Coltman was a colliery banksman from Houghton-le-Spring; he was 19 years old. Pte. John James Cowling was a 32 year-old toilet attendant from Brighouse; he was married but had no children. Pte. Alfred Ellis was a 20 year-old glassblower from Mirfield. Pte. Leonard Ellis was a 20 year-old milk dealer from Baildon. Pte. Edward Grayshon was a 25 year-old grocer from Drighlington. Pte. Bertie Greaves was a 25 year-old farm labourer from Burley-in-Wharfedale. Pte. Hubert Henry (‘Bertie’) Greensmith was 29 years old and from Holmbridge, near Huddersfield; he was the only son and eldest of three children of William and Sarah Greensmith. William was a self-employed baker and Bertie had worked with his father. Bertie had been called up under the Military Service Act in May 1916 and posted initially to the Royal Field Artillery before being transferred to the West Ridings in June 1916. Pte. Albert Greenwood was a 24 year-old baker from Hebden Bridge; he was married, but had no children. Pte. Michael Hannigan was a 27 year-old labourer from Glasgow. He had originally attested in September 1915 and had been called up in April 1916 and posted the Royal Field Artillery Depot; he had then been transferred first to the West Yorkshire Regiment in June 1916 and finally to the ‘Dukes’ in early October. He had married shortly before his original attestation and his daughter, Margaret, had been born in July 1916. Pte. Alfred Hanson was a 19 year-old grocer’s assistant from Elland. Pte. Joseph Harker; in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man. Pte. Richard Harrison was a 26 year-old farmer from Clapham Station, near Lancaster. Pte. Fred Heppinstall was 24 years old and from Bradford, where he worked as a dyers’ labourer. He had married Esther Ellison in June 1915; although a spinster, Ethel already had a six year-old child. Pte. Arthur Hird was a 25 year-old dyer’s labourer (working for Lister & Co., dyers) from Bradford. He was a married man, though with no children; his wife, Margaret (nee Colligan), had already lost two brothers killed in the war. Pte. Joseph Hirst (24181) was a 32 year-old textile worker from Meltham. Pte. Robert Hitchen was a 25 year-old packer from Sowerby Bridge; he was married with one son. Pte. George Allen Holroyd was a 19 year-old horseman from Keighley. Pte. Harry Jackson (24186) was a baker from Bradford; 26 years old, he had married Annie Adcock in December 1912 but the couple had no children. Pte. Ernest Jones was a 21 year-old driver from Bradford. Pte. Frederick Ernest Jones was a 25 year-old hairdresser from Halifax; he was married with one son. Pte. John Killerby, aged 24, was a grocer’s assistant from Halton, Leeds. Pte. Albert William Knight was a 21 year-old weaver from Milnsbridge. Pte. Arthur Lee was a 25 year-old dyers’ labourer from Bradford; he was married, with one son. Pte. Thomas Manuell was a 29 year-old gardener from Newark; he had attested in December 1915. Pte. Arthur Milner was 31 years old; he was originally from Preston but had more recently been living in Halifax. He was a widower (his wife Beatrice had died in 1910, aged just 24, leaving Arthur with their two young children. When Arthur enlisted it appears that his children went to live in Halifax with their maternal aunt, Elizabeth Dewhurst. Pte. Ernest Morrison was a 32 year-old printer from Brighouse. Pte. Tom Close Naylor was 24 years old and from Todmorden, where he had worked as a weaver; he had married Harriett Annie Pickles in May 1914, but the couple had no children. Pte. William Naylor was a 37 year-old brass polisher from Halifax. Pte. Leonard Nicholl was a 24 year-old dyer’s labourer from Brighouse; he was married but had no children. Pte. James Charles Eugene O’Callaghan was a 24 year-old sailor from Middlesbrough. Pte. Claude Prosser was a 21 year-old ‘piece folder’ from Idle, Bradford. Pte. Victor Race was a 33 year-old mill overlooker from Steeton. Pte. Arnold Robson was 20 years old and from Huddersfield, where he had worked for his father who was a tailor. Pte. Mark Ruckledge was a 24 year-old contractor’s foreman from Barnsley. He was married with two children; his daughter, Lilly, was just 13 days old. Pte. Oliver Stancliffe was a 19 year-old warehouseman from Huddersfield; he had joined the Territorial Battlion in March 1914, aged 17, and had been oposted to France having turned 19. Pte. Arthur Sutcliffe was a 21 year-old warehouseman from Bradford. Pte. Fred Sutcliffe was a 25 year-old weaver from Hebden Bridge; he was married with a three-month old daughter. Pte. Ernest Townsend was a 25 year-old case maker from Halifax; he was married with two children. Pte. Arthur Wallis; in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man. Pte. Samuel Wilkinson was a 20 year-old cellarman from Dundee; he was married but had no children. Pte. Samuel Woodhead was a 36 year-old married man from Barnoldswick, where he had worked as a weaver. He had previously served with 9DWR, going out to France in July 1915; he had been wounded on the Somme in July 1916 and had spent some time in England recuperating before being posted to 10DWR.

Lt. Dobson from 69^th Field Ambulance was temporarily attached to the Battalion; most likely Battalion Medical Officer Capt. Cecil Berry (see 17th May) was on leave.

Image by kind permission of Scott Flaving

Pte. Michael Davis (see 6^th October), who had been evacuated to England ten days previously, died of his wounds at Lord Derby’s War Hospital in Warrington; he would be buried at Stoney Royd Cemetery in Halifax.


Pte. Harry Hey (15995) (see 6^th October), who had been in hospital since having suffered wounds to his hand was discharged from 2^nd General Hospital at Le Havre and posted to a Convalescent Depot (details unknown). He would subsequently (date and details unknown) be transferred to the Northumberland Fusiliers.

Nathan Swale, father of Cpl. Fred Swale (see 6^th October) died at his home; his death came suddenly, although he had been ill and unable to work for the previous year. He was well-known in his home village of Austwick and had worked for many years as a joiner.

Cpl. Fred Swale

Image by kind permission of Joan Rigg

The War Office wrote to the family of Pte. Edwin Isherwood (see 10^th October) with confirmation that he had been killed in action. His death would be reported in the Slaidburn and Dale Head Parish Magazine, “You will all, I know, be grieved at the death of Private Edwin Isherwood. Some of you will remember the first batch of recruits to leave our village on a fine Saturday morning early in the war. We commended them to God at the little impromptu open-air service and we wished them good luck in His Name. Only one of that little company is till fighting for us, viz. Charles Edward Parker (see 10^th October). Three are dead (Pte. Joshua Crossley, see 12^th April 1915, and Pte. Walter Isherwood, see 14^th April 1915), one is wounded (Pte. George Whitfield, see 10^th October) and one is at home unfit for service (Pte. Abel Moore, see 15^th June 1915). Edwin Isherwood, who was one of the recruits mentioned, is the latest to fall. He was a very nice boy and his sojourn in the Army seemed to develop all the good points in his character. His letters were always cheerful and he was, beyond doubt, a good and brave soldier. With his sorrowing mother and relatives we do indeed sympathise. She and they are bearing the trial bravely and are showing to us all a fine spirit. God bless them. Before this letter gets into your hands we shall have held a memorials service for him. Your prayers for his mother, brothers and sisters will be greatly valued.”

(I am much indebted to Margaret Brenchley for her generous support with information about the Slaidburn volunteers).

Pte. Edwin Isherwood

Sgt. Charles Edward Parker, standing centre, pictured with other NCO's of 'A' Company

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Pte. Joshua Crossley

Pte. George Whitfield

2Lt. Charles Crowther Hart (see 6^th October) reported for duty with 3DWR  (83rd Training Reserve) at North Shields; he had been recently been passed fit for home service, having been wounded at Munster Alley in July.

2Lt. Sydney Charles Ernest Farrance (see 14^th September) who had been wounded in September while serving with 8DWR, losing the sight in his right eye, was granted three months’ sick leave. Despite his injuries, Farrance would later serve with 10DWR.

Fred Tate (see 12^th November 1914), who had been an original member of ‘A’ Company but had been discharged on grounds of ill health whilst the Company was in training, lodged a claim for a pension with the War Pensions Sub Committee. Tate, who was 46 years old, and had lied about his age (claiming to be only 34) when enlisting,  acknowledged that he had suffered some degree of ill-health in his late twenties, when he had begun “to have a cough and pain in his right side and became short of breath”. However, he claimed that he “was in a perfectly healthy condition when he joined the Army, but, during the short time he was in the Army he took a severe chill owing to being kept for a considerable period in his wet clothing without a change of any kind”. He further claimed that when he “reported sick he was not taken to hospital but discharged”. Having been discharged, he had returned home but was soon admitted to Otley Union Infirmary where he was treated and found to be suffering from TB; he had remained in hospital for the next year.