Saturday, 2nd January 1915

Several members of Tunstill’s Company were affected by an outbreak of scabies (a contagious skin disease, which spreads readily in instances of close contact). At least three men were hospitalised and treated at Connaught Hospital.

Leonard Fox was one of Tunstill’s original Settle volunteers (see 11^th September). Horace Dunn had enlisted in Keighley on 12^th September; he had stated his age as 19 on his attestation papers but was actually aged only 16. Prior to enlisting he had been working as a fitter’s apprentice with Dean, Smith and Grace, a large engineering company based at Worth Valley Works in Keighley. His mother, Agnes, had died in 1906 leaving her husband, Benjamin Dunn, a chimney sweep, with the care of four young children. Reginald Hancock was another of the Keighley recruits. He was 19 years old and originally from Yeadon but recently had been living with his father, Edwin and stepmother, Mary in nearby Guiseley (Reginald’s mother, Eden Hancock, had died in 1907). Both Reginald and his father worked as weavers in the local woollen mills.