Wednesday 20th December 1916

Winnipeg Camp

In the evening a party was again despatched to Ypres, by train, to work with the Royal Engineers.

Pte. Arnold Crossley (see 17^th July) was sentenced to 14 days Field Punishment no.2; the nature of his offence is unknown.

Pte. Edward Grayshon (see 4^th December) was discharged from hospital and re-joined the Battalion, following treatment for influenza.

2Lt. Tom Pickles (see 13^th December), formerly of Tunstill’s Company, but currently on home leave while serving with 9DWR, was taken ill. He became, in his own words, “severely indisposed”. He then saw his local doctor, who advised him to see the Military Medical Officer at Keighley. A Colonel in the RAMC at Keighley advised him to go back to his own doctor, but would not give Pickles a medical certificate. 

L.Cpl. Harry Clark (see 1^st September), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was reduced to the rank of Private (details unknown).


L.Cpl. James Barker (12288) (see 10^th October), who had been in England since having been wounded in October was discharged from the Military Hospital, Sycamore Road, Nottingham; he would have two weeks’ leave before reporting to Northern Command Depot at Ripon.

John Widdup, younger brother of 2Lt. Harry Widdup (see 16^th December), who had attested ten days earlier, passed his Army medical at Keighley.

2Lt. Robert Aubrey Hildyard, serving with 1^st King’s Own Royal Lancasters, was killed in action on the Somme; he was 19 years old and the only son of Maj. Harry Robert Hildyard (see 6th June) who had been the original senior officer of Tunstill’s Company but who was now serving with 1^st (Home Service) Garrison Battalion, Leics. Regt., having been declared no longer fit for active service. Both Robert Hildyard and 18 year old 2Lt. Godfrey James Wilding, who was killed alongside him as they sheltered in a dug-out, were buried in marked graves close to where they had fallen; in 1920 their remains would be exhumed and re-buried at Peronne Road Cemetery, Maricourt. The original grave marker from Hildyard's grave was returned to England and is now in the parish church in his home town of Hythe, where there is also a memorial window, erected by his parents.

A payment of 17s. was authorised, being the first instalment of the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late L.Sgt. William McLoughlin (see 5^th July), who had been killed in July; the payment would go to his married sister, Aggie McQueen.

A payment of £3 3s. 4d. was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. James Thomas Coughlin (see 29^th July), who had been killed in action on 29^th July; the payment would go to his widow, Ethel.