Wednesday 7th March 1917

Eperlecques

The weather remained very cold, with a biting wind. Training was again carried out in the Brigade training area.

Just as he had on the previous day, Pte. Isaac Robinson (see 6^th March) was reported by 2Lt. Arthur Neill (see 6^th March) and Sgt. William Edmondson Gaunt (see 6^th March) as having “dirty ammunition on parade”; on the orders of 2Lt. Godfrey Isaacs (see 26^th September 1916)  he was to be confined to barracks for a further five days.

Pte. Jacob Carradice Green (see 29^th January) who had spent the last five weeks in hospital, re-joined the Battalion.

Pte. Jacob Carradice Green

Pte. Alfred Taylor (see 6^th June 1916) was attached to 69^th Brigade Trench Mortar Battery.

2Lt. Harold Sykes Holroyd (see 26^th October 1916), who had been with the Battalion for four months, returned to England to join the Royal Naval Air Service as a probationary Flying Officer; he would have a period of leave before formally taking up his appointment on 25^th March.

A Medical Board recommended that Pte. George Albert Wright (see 18^th June 1916), serving at 23^rd Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, should be declared ‘permanently unfit’. However, the recommendation would be ignored and Pte. Wright would remain with 23^rd IBD.

Ptes. Bertie Constantine (see 27^th February) and Fred Smith (15149) (see 7^th October), who had been in England since having been wounded in July 1916, were posted back to France; both were originally due to have joined 2DWR but would instead be re-posted to 2^nd/4^th and 2^nd/6^thDWR respectively.

Pte. Albert Saville (see 19^th November 1916) who had been injured in September and was now serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion at Gateshead, made a formal statement as to the injuries he had suffered, in anticipation of a Medical Board which would consider his possible discharge from the Army. He declared that, on 24^th September 1916, near Contalmaison, he “was sitting in a trench when shell struck parapet and he was buried in fall of earth. Removed to 1^st General Hospital, Etaples, thence to Colchester General Hospital. Complains of pain and tenderness in back, inability to stand erect or march, and of general weakness”.