Saturday 17th February 1917

Brigade support positions at Zillebeke Bund and around Observatory Ridge Ridge (One Company in Stafford Street, in Sanctuary Wood (I.24.b.3.5); two platoons at the Redan, just north of Rudkin House; two platoons at Maple Copse; and the remaining two Companies at the north-west edge of Zillebeke Bund (I.21.a.1.5).

The Battalion returned to the same sector of the front line which they had held on the previous tour, between I.24.d.7.1 and I.24.d.8.6, relieving 11^th West Yorks, with the relief complete by 8pm.

Brig Genl. Lambert (see 16^th February), accompanied by Temporary 10DWR C.O., Major Ashton St. Hill (see 15^th February) and Lt. Col. Western, C.O., 8^th Yorks.,  visited the Battalion transport lines and also the Divisional and Brigade Schools.

(I am greatly indebted to Juliet Lambert for her generosity in allowing me access to Brig. Genl. Lambert’s diary and letters).

Capt. H. Williams (see 14^th December 1916), formerly of the ASC, who had spent two months with the Battalion, left to re-join the ASC; it has not yet been possible to make a positive identification of this officer.

Cpl. Edward Isger (see 6th October 1916) was promoted Sergeant.

Acting CQMS Thomas Doyne (see 4th November 1915) is recorded as having been ‘accidentally killed’ on this day. Doyne’s death presents something of a mystery as, though he is recorded as serving with 10DWR, he was buried at Heilly Station Cemetery, near Mericourt L’Abbe on the Somme. He was clearly nor serving with the Battalion when he died but, as yet, it has not been possible to establish either the nature of his service, or the circumstances of his death.

Capt. James Christopher Bull (see 4^th January), who had left the Battalion in September 1916, suffering from paratyphoid, appeared before an Army Medical Board and was declared fit for general service.

Capt. James Christopher Bull

Image by kind permission of the Trustees of the DWR Museuem

Enquiries continued into the health of 2Lt. Howard Thurston Hodgkinson (see 16^th October) who had been evacuated to England sick in October 1916. A Lieutenant Colonel in the RAMC who had treated him in hospital in Manchester gave a written statement confirming that, “This officer was under my medical charge during the three days (October 13^th to 16^th) he was in hospital here. I do not think that varicose veins were then present (at any rate in any marked degree). If so I would certainly have made a note of their presence and, as I remember the case, I could find no physical signs of the trouble for which he was transferred to England”.


A payment of £4 13s. 4d was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. John Holden (12384) (see 6^th October 1916) who had been killed in action in October 1916; the payment would go to his widow, Margaret Ann. She would also be awarded an Army pension of 12s. 9d. per week.

Pte. John Holden