Sunday 12th November 1916

Front line trenches south of Sanctuary Wood

The state of the wire in front of the trenches was of particular concern and the recently-arrived 2Lt. Eric Dixon (see 26^th October) was given charge of permanent wiring parties. Large working parties were then sent out each night to try to address this problem. It was said that, “The enemy could be heard working in their trenches. The enemy were active with their Trench Mortars during the afternoon but ceased upon our retaliating with fieldguns”. The Divisional Trench Mortar Battery fired eight rounds at 3.30pm, from the only position which they had managed to make serviceable, “in retaliation for rum-jars”.

2Lt. Eric Dixon

Image by kind permission of the Trustees of the DWR Museum

A number of new men joined the Battalion from no.34 Infantry Base Depot at Etaples. Among them was Pte. Harold Anderton was 19 years old, a warehouseman from Baildon, he was the elder of two children of Thomas and Emma Anderton; he was a close friend of Pte. Michael Edward McCuen (see below). Pte. Harry Clay was 19 years old and from Huddersfield. Pte. Joseph Clough was a 25 year-old married man, with no children, from Gomersall, near Leeds; he had worked as a postman. Pte. Joe Dyson was 21 years old and from Huddersfield. He had attested under the Derby Scheme in December 1915 while working as a butcher’s assistant and shortly afterwards had married Maud Turner. He had been called up in July 1916 and had trained with 3DWR before departing for France on 25^th October 1916. He had then spent two weeks at Etaples before joining 10DWR. Pte. Albert Edward Everitt was a 23 year-old butcher from Huddersfield. Pte. Fred Greenwood (24522) was a 30 year-old textile worker from Hebden Bridge; he was a married man but had no children. Pte. Ernest Heyhirst was 36 years old and from Hebden Bridge. Pte. Stanley Hirst was a 23 year-old printer from Halifax. He had originally been exempted from military service on the basis of an appeal by his employers, The Valley Printing Company of Cleckheaton, that he was “the only monotype operator in the Spen Valley”. Pte. Stanley Roebuck Hutton was a 26 year-old window cleaner from Huddersfield. Pte. James Robert Ingleson was a 19 year-old dyer’s labourer (working at Marshfield Dyeworks) from Bradford. Pte. Michael Edward McCuen (known as ‘Teddy’) was the only child of Daniel and Eliza McCuen and had attested, having reached his 18^th birthday, on 11^th December 1915. He had been called up on 11^th May 1916 whilst working as a labourer in Baildon and had been formally posted to 3^rd/6^th West Ridings for training on 10^th July 1916. He was posted to France on 25^th October, travelling overnight from Folkestone to Boulogne and spending two weeks at Etaples before joining 10DWR. He was a close friend of Pte. Edward Anderton (see above). Pte. Ernest Mudd was a 19 year-old bolt maker from Oxenhope, near Keighley. Pte. Harold Peel was a 25 year-old dyers’ labourer from Honley; he was a married man with a four month-old daughter. Pte. Joseph Edward Robinson was a 30 year-old warp twister from Bradford; he was a married man with a three year-old daughter. Pte. Cain Rothera was a 23 year-old shoemaker from Keighley. Pte. Frederick Sharp was a 29 year-old baker from Burley-in-Wharfedale; he was married with a five year-old daughter, Lily. Pte. William Walker Rossall was a 19 year-old furnace tenter from Keighley.

Lt. Daniel William Paris Foster (see 11^th November), Quartermaster, 10DWR, departed from Boulogne, bound for Folkestone, to begin a 10-day leave.

Following a months’ treatment for the severe injuries he had suffered at Le Sars, Pte. Daniel Brennan (see 8^th October) was evacuated to England.

Pte. James Leonard Bloomer (see 18^th July), who had been in England for the previous four months after suffering from pain in the amputation stump of the finger of his left hand, was posted to 3DWR and immediately attached to 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion at Gateshead.