Tuesday 2nd October 1917

In Reserve at Canal Bank Dugouts, on the Ypres-Comines canal, opposite Bedford House, but with D Company and one platoon of B Company, attached to 9Yorks in the front line just south of Polygon Wood. 

A fine sunny day.

The main body of the Battalion was taken by bus to the Berthen area, travelling via Vierstraat, Kemmel, Locre and Bailleul. The detached party who had been in the front line followed later, also taking the same route by bus.

Pte. Herbert Sloane (see 2^nd October 1916) departed for England on ten days’ leave.

Pte. Alec Radcliffe (see 20^th September 1917), who had suffered facial wounds on 20^th September, was evacuated to England from 8^th Stationary Hospital at Wimereux, travelling onboard the Hospital Ship Princess Elizabeth; on arrival in England he would be admitted to 2^nd Southern General Hospital in Bristol. His injuries were severe: “shrapnel would to the face; loss of right eye; compound fractures of facial bones”.

Pte. Henry Wood Thrippleton (see 29^th September), serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion at Gateshead, was posted back to France; four days after arriving at 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples he would be formally transferred to 259^th Employment Company, Labour Corps.

Pte. Garibaldi Edwin Dawson (see 6^th June 1916), home on leave in England, was married at Thornton in Craven Parish Church to Lizzie Metcalfe. 

Maj. Edward Borrow (see 23^rd September), who was in England having been wounded on 20^th September, appeared before an Army Medical Board. The Board found that, “he was hit by a rifle bullet which passed through flesh above centre of left clavicle without impairing bone or nerve; wound now healed. A fragment of shell passed through flesh (superficially) of back of right hand; wound healing, no disability”. He was granted three weeks’ leave before reporting to Northern Command Depot at Ripon.

Maj. Edward Borrow

Pte. Joseph Clough (see 3^rd August), who had been evacuated home from France having been wounded in May, was posted from Northern Command Depot at Ripon to 3DWR at North Shields.

L.Cpl. Walter Maynard Willis (see 30^th March), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was admitted to 1^st Northern General Hospital, Newcastle. His condition was described as, “a mental case. Talks incoherently; acts foolishly. Has wild schemes of ending the war. Hand trembling; habits dirty”

It was around this date (although the exact date is unknown), that the former Battalion Chaplain, Rev. Wilfred Leveson Henderson MC (see 25^th August), who had been severely wounded in the attack on the Messines Ridge on 7^th June, was transferred to England from the Red Cross Hospital at Le Touquet. On arrival in England he would be admitted to Miss McCaul’s Hospital, Welbeck Street, London (a former private nursing home).