Saturday 20th January 1917

Billets in the Infantry Barracks in Ypres

The weather remained bitterly cold. The Battalion moved into front line trenches in Sanctuary Wood, relieving 11^th West Yorks, from I.24.b.2½.8½ to I.24.b.8½.3½. Two Companies were in the front line, with one Company in Wellington Crescent, one in Ritz Street and Battalion HQ at the Tuilleries.

Pte. Edwin Kenyon (see 27^th August) departed for England on ten days’ leave.

Pte. Ernest Morrison (see 5^th January), who had been wounded two weeks previously, was evacuated to England from 3^rd Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne, travelling onboard the Hospital Ship Jan Breydell. On arrival he would be admitted to 4^th Scottish General Hospital, Stobhill, Glasgow.

Cpl. George Wallace Fricker (see 16^th September 1916), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was married to Alice Marion Robinson in Halifax. He would be posted back to France a week later.

A payment of £11 11s 8d was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late of Sgt. Wilfred Blackburn, (see 18^th August 1916). The payment would go to his next of kin, his married sister, Mrs. Jessie Kendall.

Sgt. Wilfred Blackburn