Friday 13th April 1917

Scottish Camp, south-west of Brandhoek

Training continued. The weather turned milder, but wet.

Pte. Edward Grayshon (see 8^th April), who had only re-joined the Battalion five dayspreviously, following treatment for “I.C.T.” (Inflammation of the connective tissue) ‘general’, was readmitted to hospital, suffering from I.C.T to his foot (‘trench foot’). He was admitted via 71^st Field Ambulance and 46^th Casualty Clearing Station to 16^th General Hospital at Le Treport.

Pte. Fred Stokes (see 4^th April) was evacuated to England; he had reported sick (date unknown) and had been diagnosed as suffering from chronic nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys).

Pte. Abraham Sunderland (see 11^th January) was admitted to 69^th Field Ambulance suffering from myalgia; he would be discharged to duty six days later.

Pte. Herbert Hodgkins (see 4^th April) re-joined the Battalion; he had spent ten days at 7^th General Hospital at St. Omer, with a suspected case of german measles.

Pte. Patrick Conley (see 29^th March), serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion at Gateshead, appeared before an Army Medical Board. The Board rejected the report which had been compiled three weeks previously, and found, instead, that Conley was suffering from no disability; they declared him A1 and fit for general service.

Pte. John Arthur Atkinson was discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service due to sickness; he had been an original member of 10DWR and was from Huddersfield, but, in the absence of a surviving service record, I am unable to make a positive identification of this man.

A payment of £4 4s. 9d. was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late L.Cpl. John William Parker (13991) (see 6^th October 1916) who had been killed in action in October 1916; the payment would go to his widow, Ann. She was also awarded an Army pension of 13s. 9d. per week.

Image by kind permission of Any Wade and MenOfWorth

An article in the weekly edition of the Craven Herald reported that official acceptance of the death of Pte. Clifford George Unwin (see 28^th July 1916) had now been notified by the War Office. Unwin had been officially missing, presumed dead, since the actions around Contalmaison nine months previously.

SKIPTON SOLDIER'S DEATH CONFIRMED

In our issue of July 28^th last year we recorded the fact that news from an unofficial source had been received of the death of Private Clifford George Unwin, son of Samuel Unwin, formerly of Skipton, but now of Keighley. This news, which was contained in a letter from another Skipton soldier named Pte. John William Atkinson MM (see 6th October 1916), whose home is at 29, Cavendish Street, has this week been confirmed by the War Office. Before joining the Army on his 22nd birthday in September 1914, Pte. Unwin was a twister and loomer for Messrs. Rose, Hewitt, and Co., and lived with his married sister, Mrs. McEnnerney, in Dawson Street, Skipton. He enlisted in the Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment, and had been at the Front several months.

Pte. Clifford George Unwin