Thursday 25th January 1917

Billets in the Infantry Barracks in Ypres

The freezing weather continued. Around 200 men were employed each day on working parties; conditions remained generally quiet.

Battalion Adjutant Lt. Hugh William Lester MC (see 1^st January) was attached to 69^th Brigade Headquarters for duty, although he had to leave to England prior to taking up his new appointment. His post as adjutant again went to Capt. Leonard Norman Phillips (see 24^th December).

Image by kind permission of the Trustees of the DWR Museum

Pte. Joseph Blackburn (29722) (see 16^th January) was admitted via 69^th Field Ambulance to 23^rd Division Rest Station, having suffered a sprained ankle.

Pte. Henry Marshall (see 19^th December 1916) was admitted to no.46 Casualty Clearing Station, suffering from syphilis. He would be transferred, via 131^st Field Ambulance and 3^rd Canadian General Hospital, to 51^st General Hospital at Etaples.

Sgt. Robert William John Morris (see 22^nd January), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was posted to the NCO’s School of Instruction at Tidworth Camp, Wilts.

Pte. Walter Charlesworth (see 3^rd January), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps.

Capt. George Reginald Charles Heale MC (see 3^rd January), who had recently been compelled to relinquish his commission on grounds of ill-health but had appealed the decision, appeared before a Medical Board assembled at the War Office in London. The Board found that, “He has recovered and is fit to be re-commissioned”.

Capt. George Reginald Charles Heale MC

Pte. Andrew Aaron Jackson (see 23rd September), having completed his officer training, was commissioned Second Lieutenant with the West Riding Regiment. Also commissioned on the same day, having completed their officer training, were 2Lts. Leopold Henry Burrow, Vincent Edwards (see 1^st September 1916), Arthur Lilley and Thomas Arnold Woodcock. All were posted initially to 3DWR at North Shields. Leopold Henry Burrow was 21 years old and the elder of two sons of Henry John and Hannah Burrow. He had been born in Kent but had lived in West Norwood, London, where his father worked as a manager for a firm of merchants and Japanese importers. Exactly what Burrow had been doing at the outbreak of war and by what route he came to be commissioned has not yet been established. Arthur Lilley was 23 years old (born 28^th February 1893) and was the fifth of eight children of John and Sarah Lilley. John, who had died in 1908, had worked as a miner as had his elder sons, but Arthur had trained as a teacher, attending Normanton Grammar School and St. Peter’s College, Peterborough, from where he graduated in 1914. He had attested under the Derby Scheme at Oxford in November 1915 and had been called up in November and posted to 28^th (Reserve) Battalion Royal Fusiliers. From there he was transferred to 104^th Training Reserve Battalion on 1^st September 1916 and posted to no.10 Officer Cadet Battalion, at Gailes, Ayrshire, a month later. Thomas Arnold Woodcock was 19 years old (born 3^rd April 1897), the second child and only son of Wright and Florence Woodcock. The family lived in Bingley where Wright was Headmaster at a local school. On the outbreak of war Thomas had been a student at Bradford Grammar School and a member of the school OTC. He had attested in February 1916 and had served initially with the Ox. and Bucks. Light Infantry before being transferred to no.6 Officer Cadet Battalion based at Balliol College, Oxford.


Pte. Samuel Williams (13552) (see 4^th January) was formally discharged from the Army as longer physically fit for service on account of wounds suffered in action; he was assessed as having suffered an 80% disability and was awarded an Army pension of £2 13s. 7d. per week, to be reviewed after one year.

A second payment, of 4s. 6d. was authorised, being a further amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late L.Cpl. James Kettlewell (see 23^rd October 1916), who had been killed in action on 28^th July 1916; the payment would go to this mother, Dorothy.