Saturday 23rd June 1917

Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

Capt. Leo Frederick Reincke (see 13^th June) and 2Lt. Eric Dixon (see 13^th June), both of whom had transferred to the Royal Flying Corps to be trained as observers, began a one month training course for their new roles, based at Reading.

Pte. Thomas Hemingway (see 7^th June), who had suffered relatively minor wounds to his left arm and face on 7^th June, was discharged from hospital at Le Treport and posted to 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples. 


Pte. Thomas Manuell (see 14^th June), who had been under treatment for ‘trench foot’, was one of 101 men transferred from 7^th Convalescent Depot at Boulogne on the opening of the new 12^th Convalescent Depot at Aubengue, north of Wimereux. The new depot consisted of just 30 bell tents but would be developed and extended such that by mid-July it would accommodate almost 500 men.

Pte. William Baxter (see 22^nd January), serving with 17^th Prisoner of War Company, was reported for “breaking out of camp and returning drunk”; he would be fined 10s. and deprived of seven days’ pay.

Pte. Fred Richmond (see 28^th April) was transferred from 7^th Battalion, Labour Corps to the newly-formed 488^th (Home Service) Employment Company of the Corps. 


A payment of £4 14s. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Thomas Berry (see 10^th July 1916), who had been officially missing in action since July 1916; the payment would go to his father, Robinson.

The weekly edition of the Keighley News reported the death of Sgt. John Thomas Hall MM (see 23^rd May) and also of wounds suffered by Pte. Leonard Pickles (see below)

MILITARY MEDAL WINNER’S DEATH

Sergeant John Thomas Hall, West Riding Regiment, a Military Medal winner, of 8 Park Terrace, Dalton Lane, Keighley, has been killed in action. A single young man aged 26, he joined the Army in September 1914, and had been at the front two years. He formerly followed his trade as a moulder with Messrs. Clapham Bros., Keighley. He was the popular captain of the Keighley Celtic football team, and was very well known and highly esteemed. Second Lieutenant A.A. Jackson, his platoon officer, writing to his mother, extends his deepest sympathy, and adds; “When he, along with six of his comrades were killed, I was in another part of the front, and received quite a shock when I heard of the great misfortune which had overtaken my platoon. By the death of your son I lose one of the smartest and most cheery sergeants in my platoon.”

Private Leonard Pickles, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Pickles, of 7 Eagle Street, Keighley, is reported missing. He enlisted in the West Riding Regiment in September 1914, and was wounded by shrapnel in December 1915, and again in July 1916. He returned to the front last March.

Leonard Pickles had been an original member of 10DWR, having enlisted at the age of 18, in Keighley. In the absence of a surviving service record it has not been possible to establish details of the wounds recorded here and it is unclear whether, by 1917, he was still serving with 10DWR or had already been transferred to 2DWR with whom he is known to have served.