Friday 8th December 1916

Front line trenches near Zouave Wood

It was found that German artillery was rather more active than on the previous tour and considerable shelling was directed towards the Royal Engineers dump at Halfway House. A sequence of bright, clear nights meant that little patrolling could be done, but work continued on improving the trenches and wire.  

Lt. Leonard Norman Phillips (see 31^st October) was promoted Temporary Captain.

Image by kind permission of the Trustees of the DWR Museum

Pte. Frank Easterby was posted to 10DWR from one of the Infantry Base Depots at Boulogne. He was a 26 year-old labourer from Sowerby Bridge and was married but had no children. He had volunteered in September 1914 and had served in France with 8DWR from 15^th July 1915. He had been treated for trench foot in November 1915 and had been wounded and evacuated to England in August 1916, since when he had served with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion until being posted back to France on 18^th November.

Pte. Archibald Louis Norris (see 19^th September), who had been wounded twice whilst in France, was posted back to England, initially to 3DWR but the attached to 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion at Gateshead.



Pte. William Ackroyd (see 6^th October), who had been in England since having been wounded in October, was admitted to Keighley War Hospital.

Image by kind permission of Andy Wade and MenOfWorth

Capt. Adrian O’Donnell Pereira (see 18^th November), currently on light duty with 3DWR at North Shields, submitted an application for a permanent commission in the Indian Army.

 

Capt. Adrian O'Donnell Pereira

The London Gazette published confirmation of promotions for Lt. Frank Redington MC (see 4^th December), Lt. Dick Bolton (see 16^th October) and Lt. Henry Kelly VC (see 29^th November). All three were confirmed as Acting Captains whilst commanding Companies, with effect from 6^th, 12^th and 23^rd October respectively.

Capt. Dick Bolton

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Capt. Henry Kelly VC

The London Gazette also carried notice of the award of the Military Medal to 15 men from 10DWR who had all distinguished themselves in the actions between September and early October. They were CSM Billy Oldfield (see 24^th November); Sgts. James Davis (see 6 October), William Eley (see 6th tober), John Thomas Hall (below see  6^th October), Norman Roberts MM (see 23^th October) and Harry Waller (see 20^th September);  A/Cpl. Thomas Stephen Moyle (below see 6^th October) He was 28 years old and originally from Ulverston but had lived for some time with his parents in Steeton, where he worked as a twister for Messrs. John Clough & Sons and had played for Steeton Football Club. He had been in the Dukes’ territorial Battalion before the war, had been made Corporal when he enlisted in September 1914 and had been with the Battalion throughout. In the Spring of 1915, before the Battalion departed for France, he had married Elizabeth Atkinson. He had been awarded the Military Medal for his conduct at Le Sars in October 1916 and; L.Cpls. William Rawnsley (see 30^th November) (he had died of wounds on 30^th November) and James Walker (see 27^th October); and Ptes. Harry Barraclough (see 6^th October), Albert Hurford (see 6^th October) he was a 24 year-old dyers’ labourer from Bradford and married with one son; Ernest Stead (below see 6^th October) who was an original member of the Battalion, though not of Tunstill’s Company (in the absence of a surviving service record, I am, as yet, unable to make a positive identifaction of this man); Richard Swallow (see 7^th October); Thomas Thompson (see 6^th October); Alfred Edward Wybrow (see 6^th October).

John Thomas Hall was one of the Keighley contingent of volunteers who had been added to Tunstill’s original recruits in September 1914. He and his family were originally from Darlington but were settled in Keighley by 1911, where John was working as a moulder for Clapham Bros., ironfounders, of Keighley. He enlisted at the age of 23 and was well known in the town, being captain of the Keighley Celtic football team.

Sgt. John Thomas Hall MM

The same edition of the Gazette also notified the award of the Military Medal to a former member of Tunstill’s Company, Sgt. Frederick Griggs (see 5^th November), who was now serving with 2DWR.

The weekly edition of the Craven Herald carried several reports concerning Tunstill’s Company:

TOSSIDE - PRIVATE PERCY HODGSON KILLED

News was received on October 16^th of Pte. Percy Hodgson's (see 29^th October) death from wounds he had had inflicted in France. He enlisted with Captain Tunstill's men, and went out to France about 13 months ago. Private Hodgson was 21 years of age and was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Hodgson of Stephen Moor Lodge, Tosside, with whom much sympathy is expressed in their sad bereavement. Mr. and Mrs. Hodgson have two younger sons serving the Colours. Private Tom Hodgson has been spending a short furlough during this last week at home.

A memorial service was held at Mount Zion Chapel an October 29^th. Mr. Sugden, of Keighley, occupied the pulpit, and at the close of his sermon made reference to Pte. Hodgson's death. He was an old scholar at the Sunday School. A collection was taken in aid of the soldiers' comforts, and amounted to £4 10s. 4d., including other subscriptions.

The lady members have been busy of late in making comforts for the lads who have gone from the district; 16 parcels have been made up and sent out.

Pte. Percy Hodgson

The theme of ‘comforts’ for the troops was also picked up in reference to the continuing fund-raising efforts of Mrs. Geraldine Tunstill (see 20^th October). With her husband, Capt. Gilbert Tunstill (see passim), now serving with 83^rd Training Reserve, based in Gateshead, Geraldine had followed her husband and was herself living in Newcastle.

COMFORTS FOR TUNSTILL’S MEN

Mrs. H.G. Tunstill acknowledges with grateful thanks the following contributions to the “Comforts” for her husband’s me, which have been sent to France, and to the wounded men in hospital: £1 Mr. John Waugh; 20 mittens, two socks, six handkerchiefs, Mrs. Ecroyd; three cardigans, two mufflers, Mrs. H.G. Tunstill; six footballs, 2,500 cigarettes, 20 lbs. sweets, 100 writing pads, tobacco, chocolate, literature, handkerchiefs etc. for the Fund.

Mrs. Tunstill is very anxious to send a Christmas parcel to each man who enlisted with Captain Tunstill in September 1914 and will be very grateful if they, or their relatives and friends, will send her a postcard, giving their present address as soon as possible to her at The Station Hotel, Newcastle. She will also very gratefully acknowledge any comforts sent to her at the same address.

There was also news regarding two former members of Tunstill’s Company:

AUSTWICK

Sergeant Wilson Pritchard (see 13^th October), son of Mr. William Pritchard, is at home on ten days’ sick leave. Sergt. Pritchard enlisted in September 1914 in the 10^th Duke of Wellington’s, but afterwards transferred to the Cyclist Section, to which he is now attached. He went to France in May last, and was wounded by shrapnel at Thiepval in September. For some time he was in hospital in France, but for the last few weeks has been in the V.A.D. Hospital at York.

BOLTON-BY-BOWLAND

A Letter from Greece.

Pte. Robert Singleton (see 20^th November), Monebent, writes from Greece on November 20^th thanking the local war fund committee for their gifts which he has safely received. He says: ”We are having some very wet weather just now and we are up to the knees in mud. We are very busy as you will be able to see by the papers. We have soldiers from every nation with us, and we are fairly pushing on. Have they left you many young men about Bolton? They burn their farms here if they won’t go. It is a very hilly country and the Greeks are very dirty and unclean and the biggest thieves you could ever come across. The crops are coming up now and are looking nice and green; they are mostly oats and wheat, but it would do the people good to see them ploughing; they do not get above four inches deep with oxen, and the plough is something like a spade with a pole attached to it, and there is a little handle he can just get hold of with one hand. In the other hand he carries a long stick with which he prods the oxen to make them go faster or to turn the corners. The only means by which the oxen are fastened to the plough is a bar under and over their necks. You see the children going to school with a bit of sheep or goat’s skin on their feet and a pair of breeches like a bag of flour, with a piece of flannel round their waists about fifteen feet long, and a little carpet bag on their backs”.

A list was compiled of the former employees of Messrs John Hartley (Cowling) Ltd, Acre Mill, Cowling (see 12^th July 1915) who were presently serving in the armed forces. The names of two of Tunstill’s original recruits appear in the list; Q.M.S. Frank Stephenson (see 20^th October) and Pte. Ernest Jobling (see 25^th October 1915). Jobling had been transferred to the ASC as a driver, but Stephenson was still with 10DWR and indeed had written to the firm’s proprietor, Mr. Watson Hartley, with news of the death in action of his son, Sgt. John Hartley (see 27^th October), who had been killed at le Sars.

QMS Frank Stephenson

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Ernest Jobling (standing), with his younger brother, Joseph, who served in the Royal Navy

(I am very grateful to Joan Tindale for her support with information on the Cowling recruits and for her kind permission to publish the image from the account book).