Saturday 8th September 1917

Billets in the Lederzeele area.

The Battalion was engaged in training for a forthcoming attack.

Lt. Paul James Sainsbury (see 2^nd August), after spending more than a year in England having been wounded while serving with 2DWR on the Somme on 1^st July 1916, returned to France, en route to joining 10DWR.

Lt. Paul James Sainsbury

It was around this time, although the exact date is uncertain that a large draft of men reported for duty. They were mostly conscripted men, many of them from the London area, who were being posted to active service for the first time. In the absence of surviving service records for most of them it has not yet been possible to make positive identifications of many of these men. Among those posted to 10DWR are known to have been CSM Ernest James Odell; CSM Fred Pattison; Col. Sgt. Thomas Winder; Sgt. Edward Robert Butler; Cpl. Arthur Boorman was a 36 year-old former police officer from Surrey; Cpl. George Arthur Chitticks was a 22 year-old former farm labourer from Essex; Cpl. Albert Leech was a 23 year-old ‘belt designer’ from Islington; he was married with one daughter. Cpl. George Herbert Moody was 36 years old, married, with four children, and from Anglesey; Cpl. Reuben Serrell was 19 years old and from Leek, Staffs.; Pte. James Adams was from Glasgow and married, with two children; Pte. James George Aries; Pte. Stanley Ellis Barth was 19 years old and from Islington; Pte. Albert Edward Beasley; Pte. Ernest Bellamy; Pte. Thomas Henry Bennett; Pte. David Boas; Pte. John William Bonner; he was 21 years old and from Whitley Bay; Pte. Arthur Briscoe; Pte. George Edmund Childs, he was 29 years old and from Lambeth; Pte. William Edward Chase, he was 19 years old and from Deptford; Pte. Ernest George Coxall was a 37 year-old married man from Islington; Pte. James Crane; Pte. William Demee was from London; Pte. Robert James Dugdale was 28 years old and from Hackney; Pte. Thomas Farrow; Pte. Frederick James Farthing was 18 years old and from West Bergholt, Essex; Pte. Frederick Jesse Foster was 40 years old and from Camberwell; Pte. Robert Hines French was a 37 year-old married man from Deptford; Pte. George William Gamblin was 30 years old and originally from Sheffield but had been living in London. Pte. William George Golding was 19 years old and from Shoreditch. Pte. John William Hebb was a 36 year-old self-employed draper; he was a married man, originally from Lincolnshire but had been living in Bolsover, Derbyshire; Pte. Louis Heren was 19 years old and from London; Pte. Robert Bernard Higgins; Pte. Lewis Hollingworth; Pte. Frederick Thomas Hollis; Pte. William James Horne was a 35 year-old married man with one son from Glasgow; Pte. John Johnstone; Pte. Henry Harry Jolly was 38 years old; although born in Burma (now Myanmar), he had returned to England by the time he was two years old. He was a married man with one daughter (image); Pte. Archibald Kean was from Kilmarnock; he was married, with three children; Pte. Henry Thomas Lackey was 35 years old, from London and was married with three children; Pte. William Kendall Lamb was a 22 year-old clerk from Bradford; Pte. David Levey; Pte. Alfred Samuel Long; Pte. Stanley Arthur Lucas was 22 years old and from Needham Market, Suffolk; Pte. William Arthur Birch Machin was 19 years old and from Leek, Staffs.; Pte. Donald McColl; Pte. Herbert Noble; Pte. Hugh Stacey Norris was a 32 year-old married man from Hackney; Pte. Horace James Nurse was 38 years old and from Newcastle upon Tyne; he was married with one son and had previously served with the Northumberland Fusiliers. Pte. John Oldfield; Pte. Clifford Orchard was a 24 year-old married man with one son; Pte. Robert Page; Pte. Edward Percival; Pte. Henry Powell; Pte. Albert Rowe had previously served with 1^st/4^th Northumberland Fusiliers; Pte. James Scott; Pte. William Skilton Scott was from Camberwell; Pte. John George Sleight was a 31 year-old gamekeeper from Belford, Northumberland. Pte. Herbert Smith (31449) was a 27 year-old labourer from Huddersfield. Pte. Robert Smith (235360) was a 24 year-old labourer from Gateshead; he was a married man. Pte. Walter Smith (235414); Pte. Harry Stillwell was from London; he was 32 years old and married with one daughter; Pte. Augustus Edgar Stone was 35 years old and from London; Pte. Frank Suckling was from London; Pte. Reuben Thomas Thompson was 29 years old and from London; Pte. Thomas Frederick William Tink was 19 years old and from London; Pte. Alexander Moir Walker was 35 years old and originally from Montrose; Pte. John Joseph Walker was a 26 year-old labourer from Doncaster; Pte. Ernest Frederick Warner was 22 years old and from Colchester; Pte. Cuthbert Wrightson was a 30 year-old dentist from Leeds; he was a married man.

Five officers arrived in France who would be posted to serve with 10DWR, although they had originally been commissioned to serve with the East Yorkshire Regiment.

2Lt. John Robert Cass was 37 years old and from Hull, where he had worked before the war as a cabinet maker; he was a married man with two sons. Following the outbreak of war he had joined the East Yorkshire Regiment and had gone out to France in April 1915. He had been commissioned on 26^th April 1917 and had been formally transferred to the West Ridings on 27^th June. The other four officers were all posted on temporary attachment to 10DWR. Lt. Erik Frost Helmsing was just 19 years old, the son of a coal merchant from Hull. He had been commissioned Second Lieutenant on 18^th July 1915 and promoted Lieutenant on 1^st July 1917. 2Lt. George Thomas Lotherington was 26 years old (born 8^th September 1890) and from Hull where he had worked as an ironmonger’s assistant. He had served in the ranks with the East Yorkshires and had served abroad from December 1915. He had been commissioned on 27^th June 1917. 2Lt. William Taylor was 30 years old (born 5^th April 1887) and from Liverpool where he had worked as a salesman for a firm of fruit importers. He had joined the East Yorkshire Regiment in September 1914 and had served in France with 8^th Battalion from April 1916 until being wounded in early July 1916. He had been posted back to England and had married Annie Neale on 5^th September 1916 in a service at the Wesleyan Chapel in West Derby. He had applied for a commission in January 1917 and been commissioned on 26^th June. 2Lt. John Henry Walker was 26 years old (born 28^th May 1891), married, and, before the war, had been working as an assistant schoolmaster at Hartlepool Henry Smith Secondary School. He had served in England with 3^rd East Yorks., being promoted Corporal, and had applied for a commission in December 1916. He had been commissioned on 26^th June.

2Lt. Leopold Henry Burrow (see 20^th August) was transferred to Permanent Base Duties and posted for duty at no.14 Convalescent Depot at Trouville.

Pte. George Albert Wright (see 7^th March) was transferred from 23^rd Infantry Base Depot at Etaples to 34^th Infantry Base Depot, also at Etaples, and declared fit only for permanent base duties on account of his age (he was 38).

Pte. Albert John Start (see 1^st June), serving with a Base Details Battalion at Abbeville, was transferred to 791^st Area Employment Company, Labour Corps.

Pte. George Edward Chapman (see 11^th August 1916), who was back in England after serving just one week with 10DWR in June 1916 before suffering shellshock, was attached to 517^th (Home Service) Labour Company, Labour Corps. Pte. Matthew Woodward (see 25^th April 1916), who had been wounded in March 1916, was also transferred to the same Company.