Monday 7th May 1917

Halifax Camp, south of Vamertinghe

Training continued. There was rain early in the morning, but this cleared by 8.30am and the weather became very warm.

Pte. Charles Walton (see 5^th January) of ‘A’ Company found himself on a charge for “absenting himself from a working party for three hours”. He was reported by Sgt. Charles Edward Parker MM (see 22^nd January) and Cpl. John Stewart (see 25^th April) and sentenced to 14 days Field Punishment no.2.

Two men from ‘C’ Company, Ptes. Charles Oldham (see 16^th January) and Thomas Kay (see 6^th March 1916), found themselves on a charge of “losing, by neglect, his field dressing”; on the orders of Capt. Alfred Percy Harrison (see 6^th May) both would be confined to barracks for five days and would meet the cost of replacing their field dressing. Oldham had been reported by Sgt. Alfred Dolding (see 6^th May) and Kay by Sgt. John Ratlidge (see below).

John Ratlidge was 22 years old and one of nine children of Henry and Mary Ellen Ratlidge. Three of John’s siblings had died in infancy and his mother had also died in 1909. By 1911 the family was living in Keighley, where Henry worked for the local corporation as a road repairer and John, though only 15, was an overlooker at a worsted spinning mill. John Ratlidge was an original member of the Battalion, having enlisted in September 1914 and had been promoted Lance Corporal while still in training in England and subsequently Sergeant.

Pte. Nathaniel Bather (see 27^th April) was discharged from 23^rd Division Rest Station at Waratah Camp, south-east of Poperinghe, and re-joined the Battalion; he had been suffering from rose measles.

After almost three weeks in hospital suffering from myalgia, Cpl. George Wallace Fricker (see 21^st April) re-joined the Battalion from the Divisional Rest Station at Waratah Camp, near Poperinghe.

A week after returning to France Capt. Adrian O’Donnell Pereira (see 30^th April) re-joined the Battalion. He had been in England for the previous six months having been treated for shellshock.

 

Capt. Adrian O'Donnell Pereira