Thursday 14th June 1917

Le Coq de Pailie, close to Berthen

A bright and sunny day and a little cooler than of late. Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 8^th June) made arrangements for the following day for a photographer to take a series of photographs of the senior Brigade officers.

The next two weeks would later be described as “a deservedly pleasant time”; there was training to be done but there was also time for relaxation which would include Brigade and Divisional horse shows. 

2Lt. Herbert Edwin James Biggs (see 4^th June) reported for duty with 10DWR; he had arrived in France ten days previously. 

Rev. Hugh Wilfrid Todd (see 1^st November 1916) joined the Battalion as its new chaplain, in place of the wounded Rev. Wilfred Leveson Henderson (see 7^th June).

Image by kind permission of the Trustees of the DWR Museum

Pte. Herbert Willoughby (see 28^th May) was reported by Sgt. John Ratlidge (see 7^th May) for ‘not complying with an order’; on the orders of 2Lt. Bob Perks DSO (see 13^th June) he would be confined to barracks for four days.

Lt. Arthur Halstead (see 7^th June), who had been awarded the Military Cross for his conduct on 7^th June, was posted temporarily to X Corps to undertake a course of instruction in bombing. 2Lt. Leopold Henry Burrow (see 17^th March) was also posted to undertake a course, although in his case the details are unknown.

Pte. Thomas Manuell (see 29^th May), who had been under treatment for ‘trench foot’, was transferred from 3^rd Canadian General Hospital at Boulogne to 7^th Convalescent Depot, also at Boulogne.

The remains of Pte. Tom Close Naylor (see 7^th June), who had been reported missing in action, were identified. However, the cross marking his grave would be destroyed in subsequent fighting and the site of his burial lost. He is now commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.

2Lt. Donald Halliday Lyon was posted to France, en route to joining 10DWR. He had only just turned 19 years of age (born 4^th June 1898) and was newly-commissioned from 12^th Officer Cadet Battalion at Newmarket, having been Company Sergeant Major in the OTC at Leeds Grammar School. He was the elder of two sons of James and Sarah Lyon; the family lived in Leeds where James worked as a teacher.

Capt. Gilbert Tunstill (see 17^th May), currently serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion, based at Brighton Road Schools, Gateshead, appeared before a further Medical Board assembled at Sunderland. He had recently spent some time at Hammerton VAD Hospital in Sunderland. The Board found that, “his condition remains the same. He has an arch support but he does not find it much help”. He was declared fit only for light duty at home for the next two months, at which point he would be re-examined.

Capt. Gilbert Tunstill

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Lt. Thomas Beattie, (see 12^th May), currently serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion in Gateshead having been wounded while serving with 9DWR, appeared before a further Medical Board assembled at Sunderland. The Board found him now fit for general service, although “there is some tenderness of the scar”. 

Less than a month after re-joining his Battalion Pte. Herbert Kitley (see 22^nd May), serving with 8DWR, suffered a sprained left knee; he would be admitted to 34^th Field Ambulance.

Sgt. Richard Farrar (see 12^th December 1916) was transferred from Northern Command Depot at Ripon to 3DWR at North Shields.

Pte. Alfred Henry Green (see 6^th April), who had been in England since having been wounded at Le Sars in October 1916, appeared before an Army Medical Board at Tynemouth and was declared unfit for further service, and was to be transferred to Army Reserve Class P.