Saturday 20th October 1917

In bivouacs at Railway Dugouts and Zillebeke Bund.

The Battalion marched three miles south to ‘C’ Camp, near Kruistraathoek (H.30.c.4.2)

Pte. Bertie Thurling (see 16^th January) was admitted to 71^st Field Ambulance, having suffered bruising to his abdomen; he would re-join the Battalion a week later.

It seems to have been around this date, though the exact date is unknown, that an (unnamed) officer wrote to the parents of Cpl. Joseph Smith (12748) (see 18^th October) who had been killed in action on 18^th October. “It is with deepest sorrow that I have to inform you of the death of your son, Corpl. Joseph Smith. The enemy were heavily shelling the front line trenches and a shell burst in the trench close to where your son and two others were standing, killing all three instantaneously. He was buried where he fell by his comrades. Your son’s death is keenly felt by all who knew him. He was most highly respected and a very reliable NCO. Please accept the deepest sympathy of all ranks in this Company in your sad bereavement”. (I am most obliged to Edward Wild for the information on Joseph Smith).

L.Sgt. Albert Earnshaw (see 24^th September), who had been in England since having been wounded on 20^th September was transferred to Netherfield Road Auxiliary Hospital in Liverpool.

In accordance with the recommendation of an Army Medical Board held three weeks previously, Pte. Sam Appleyard (see 29^th September) who had suffered a fractured left shoulder and other wounds on 7^th June, was formally discharged as no longer fit for military service. He was awarded a pension of 27s. 6d. per week.

Percy Geldard (see 7^th June), who had been discharged from the Army on account of his wounds, appeared before a Medical Board assembled at Queen Mary’s Military Hospital, Whalley. The Board reported that he had ‘a large scar inner side of the left buttock, extending along perineum; right testicle absent; left is atrophied; wound on penis not healed. He passes water not through urethral orifice but through sinus below glans penis’. His degree of disability was revised from 40% to 20% and his pension reduced accordingly. 

A payment of £2 1s. 7d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. John Coltman (see 7^th June), who had been killed in action on 7^th June; the payment would go to his mother, Elizabeth. His mother was also sent a ‘religious book’ which was the only surviving item from among her son’s personal effects.

The weekly edition of the Keighley News carried a report of the wounding of Cpl. Edwin Lightfoot (see 28^th September), who had been wounded on 20^th September.

Corporal Edwin Lightfoot, West Riding Regiment, of 11 Marlborough Street, Keighley, has been wounded. Before enlistment in September 1914, he was employed as a butcher by the Keighley Co-Operative Society. His father has also been in the Army nearly three years.