Sunday 22nd April 1917

Trenches in the Hill 60 sub-sector, opposite the Caterpillar

A very fine, warm day. In the evening the Battalion was to be relieved by 8^th KOYLI and march back to Scottish Camp, via Kruistraat. Guides rendezvoused with the incoming Battalion at 8.30pm at Transport Farm, near Railway Dugouts and the relief, according to the War Diary, passed off without incident. However, one man is officially recorded as having been killed in action on the day. The dead man was Pte. Stephen Walsh, who is buried at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground. He was not an original member of the Battalion but had been drafted out to France to join 10DWR on 10^th March 1916 after signing up in Bradford on 12^th July 1915, shortly after his nineteenth birthday. He had trained with 11^th Battalion, during the course of which he had three times been found to have been absent from duty.  He had been working as a plumber’s labourer before joining up and was the second of seven children of John and Mary Walsh.

2Lt. Frank Wilkinson (see 16^th April) who had arrived in France a few days earlier, now reported for duty with 10DWR; I am, as yet unable to make a positive identification of this officer.

Pte. Edward Grayshon (see 13^th April) was evacuated to England from 16^th General Hospital at Le Treport; he had been suffering from ‘trench foot’, but the details of his treatment in England are unknown.

It seems to have been around this date that Pte. Johnny Smith (see 15^th April) wrote a further letter home to his family, reflecting on events since the sinking of the troopship SS Cameronia; “They did not give us long at Malta to get over our shock, but never mind, we are now safe in Egypt. It only took us about 70 hours, but I can tell you they seemed like 70 days to me. There is nothing to grumble at here; it is very hot and dusty, but I think I can stand that all right. We are here for equipment, then I expect we shall go forward to Mesopotamia”.

 

Pte. Johnny Smith

Pte. William Henry Thornton (see 2^nd January 1916), serving at Northern Command Depot at Alnwick, was posted to 3DWR at North Shields.