Tuesday 18th September 1917

Bivouacs at Middle East Camp, north of La Clytte.

Overnight, 18^th-19^th, two advance parties were sent out overnight to establish the routes into the front line which were to be taken by the Battalion on the following evening. However, they were subjected to heavy artillery fire and, in the words of the Battalion War Diary, both were “knocked out by shell fire”. Three officers and four men were killed and a number of others wounded.

The officers killed were Lt. Joseph Crocker (see 22^nd June) and 2Lts. William Taylor and John Henry Walker (see 17^th September), both of whom had only joined the Battalion the previous day on attachment from the East Yorkshire Regiment. The men killed were L.Cpl. Arthur Charles Elkington MM (see 16^th August; it is not known when he had been promoted); he had taken shelter in a dugout which was hit by a shell. In a letter to his family, an (unnamed) officer said that he had been “well-respected by his platoon and company”; L.Cpls. Robert Arthur Watkinson (see 5^th May) and James Lister Petty (see 24^th July) and L.Cpl. Norman Wright (see 23^rd July), who was initially reported wounded and missing, but later confirmed killed. It is likely that all those killed were initially buried close to the front line but their graves were lost in subsequent fighting. After the war the remains of L.Cpl. Watkinson would be exhumed from an unmarked grave near Jasper Avenue trench, just south of Stirling Castle, and re-buried at Tyne Cot Cemetery. The other six officers and men are commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing.

L.Cpl. Martin Reddington (see 9^th July) suffered minor shrapnel wounds to his back and right knee and was admitted to 71^st Field Ambulance. Pte. Abraham Sunderland (see 13^th April) suffered shrapnel wounds to his right hand and knee; he would be admitted via 71^st Field Ambulance and 53^rd Casualty Clearing Station at Bailleul to 7^th Canadian General Hospital at Etaples. Pte. Willie Cowgill (see 23^rd March) suffered shrapnel wounds to his left hand; he would be admitted via 6^th Australian Field Ambulance and 10^th Casualty Clearing Station at Remy Sidings to 56^th General Hospital at Etaples.

Pte. William Hewitt (25172) (see 5^th July) reported sick, suffering from an abcess; he would be admitted via 71^st Field Ambulance and 41^st Casualty Clearing Station to 7^th Canadian General Hospital at Etaples.

Pte. Ellis Sutcliffe (see 4^th September), who had only re-joined the Battalion two weeks previously having been wounded in July, was admitted to hospital suffering from inflammation of his right knee. 

Pte. Harry Hartley (see 3^rd August), who had been posted back to England six weeks previously, was posted to Northern Command Depot at Ripon.

A payment of £2 2s. 6d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Albert Edward Carter (see 23^rd May), who had been killed in action on 23^rd May; the payment would go to his widow, Lily. A package of his personal effects (contents unknown) was also sent to his widow.