Wednesday 11th April 1917

Scottish Camp, south-west of Brandhoek

Training continued. A large party, comprising 340 officers and men, under the command of Capt. Alfred Percy Harrison (see 9^th April) was despatched to Zillebeke Bund, from where they would be deployed to provide working parties to improve the trenches in the Hill 60 sub-sector, where the Battalion was shortly to be deployed. The trenches had been badly damaged by the intense German bombardment and attacks of 9^th April. These movements took place despite the very cold weather and a severe snowstorm which continued throughout the late afternoon and evening.

Pte. William McEvoy (see 5^th March) was discharged from 4^th Stationary Hospital at Arques, following treatment for scabies; it is not known exactly when he re-joined the Battalion.

Pte. Herbert Greenwood Audsley (see 16^th March) was transferred from 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples to duties at 24^th General Hospital, also based at Etaples.

Pte. Joseph Chandler (see 31^st March), who had been held in detention after having been previously reported as having deserted while serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was tried by District Court Martial. He was found guilty of the lesser charge of being ‘absent without leave’ and was ordered to undergo three months’ detention; howver, the sentence would be remitted eight days later on his being posted back to France to join 8DWR. 

Pte. William Postill Taylor (see 29^th March), who had deserted from 3DWR two weeks earlier, was also tried and convicted; he was sentenced to three months detention. His sentence would also be remitted on being posted back to France; in his case to join 9DWR.

Frederick Ernest Green, who was the uncle of 2Lt. Maurice Tribe MC (see 29^th March), wrote to the Labour M.P. and member of the War Cabinet, Arthur Henderson, seeking his support. He outlined his nephew’s current circumstances as he understood them;

Barings Field

Newdigate

Surrey

To Rt. Hon. Arthur Henderson MP

“I want to appeal to your humanity and sense of justice. In the Battle of the Somme my nephew was picked up as dead. He has lost an eye, has had his head battered (there is still danger about the brain and the eye still exudes pus) and returned home with piles and rheumatism, aged 23. Just after being discharged from hospital the other day he went up for re-examination and to his amazement after being granted a pension of £100 a year, was passed for General Service and told he would have to go back to the firing line after a month or two at home. He mildly remarked to the stupid doctor that he had lost an eye, and this gentleman brutally responded that two eyes were now a luxury.

My nephew is not aware that I am writing to you, but I know that he feels very keenly about his incapacity to lead a bombing party with one eye, or to avoid hand grenades, but of course the stupid old doctor would not understand this. My nephew says he would be perfectly useless in the firing line, and knowing as I do how irritable he is I do not think all danger mentally has yet passed. Of course he thought he had done his bit and had finished with the army for ever; and so did everybody else until he experienced this taste of Prussianism. He does not complain about being used at home as instructor of machine guns for instance, but he does think it suicidal to send him to a post of danger and responsibility.

I might mention he won the Military Cross (and was decorated the other week by the King) for more than one act of heroism.

If you would follow up the matter I will send you on his name and that of his Battalion.

A payment of £4 12s. 9d. was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Arthur Goldthorpe (see 6^th October 1916), who had been killed in action in October 1916. In accordance with the terms of his will the payment was divided in equal shares between his brother, Alfred, and Miss Annie E. Langford, who may have been Arthur’s sweetheart.

Pte. Arthur Goldthorpe

A payment of £18 8s 5d was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Edwin Isherwood (see 28^th December 1916), who had been killed in action at Le Sars in October 1916. In accordance with the terms of his will the payment was divided between his mother Hannah, who received £5 8s 1d, and his siblings, George, James, Albert and Mary, each of whom received £2 14s 1d. There was a similar payment also to his sister-in-law Sarah, wife of his brother Thomas.

Pte. Edwin Isherwood