Sunday 31st October 1915

Close reserve positions west of Fauquissart

The weather turned much colder. One man was wounded whilst on sentry duty. In a letter home to his family, Cpl. Norman Roberts (see 21^st August) briefly described conditions, “I have left the job of ration corporal to our machine gun section and gone back to my company, so I have had a little experience of the front line trench. We left (censored) and spent a few days in the support trenches, where there was plenty of rain and mud. We were almost washed out of our dug-outs. A few German shells visited us now and again even there”.

 

69^th Brigade War Diary recorded casualties for the Brigade since their arrival in France:

Killed                                      15
Accidentally killed                 1
Died of wounds                     6
Wounded                              88
Accidentally wounded        10

10DWR had sustained higher casualties than any other Battalion in the Brigade:

Killed                                     7
Accidentally killed              0
Died of wounds                   2
Wounded                           44
Accidentally wounded        2

 

Saturday 30th October 1915

Billets at Estaires

The Battalion relieved 1^st Worcesters in reserve positions west of the village of Fauquissart. They were positioned in Dead End, Masselot, Wangerie, Hougemont, Fort Desquin, Lonely, and Road Bend Posts and in White House billets. The War Diary described the trenches in this sector as, ‘very muddy and dirty’.

 

However, ‘C’ Company remained in Estaires to continue supporting 173^rd Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers. In place of ‘C’ Company, one company of 1^st Worcesters remained under the command of 10DWR.

 

Prior to the relief one of Tunstill’s original volunteers, Pte. Joseph Barrett Hartley (see 18^th September 1914) left the Battalion; he was discharged to take up a commission as a 2^nd Lieutenant. He left France and would spend a week at home in Thornton in Craven, before departing for the Milford House Garrison, Tenby to join 12^th (Reserve) Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers.

 

Capt. Pereira of ‘D’ Company, who had, for the previous two weeks been in hospital in France, suffering from dysentery and jaundice (see 22^nd October), was transferred to England, and admitted to the Royal Free Hospital, London.

Friday 29th October 1915

Billets at Estaires

As more working parties were provided for the Royal Engineers, arrangements were made for the relief of 1^st Worcesters to be undertaken the following day.

Pte. Reginald Hancock (see 13^th April), was found to be absent from his sentry duty; he was disciplined next day, being sentenced to seven days field punishment number two. This meant that he would have been restrained in irons (fetters, handcuffs or both), but not secured to any fixed object as was the case with the hated field punishment number one.

 

The War Office authorised a payment of £4 1s 3d to the father of Pte. John Robinson (see 18^th April), who had died from pneumonia whilst the Battalion had been in training in Folkestone.

 

The weekly edition of the Craven Herald published a report of the wounding of Pte. Bob Maunders (see 18^th October):

Wounded at “The Front”.
Official intimation has been received by Mr. J. Maunders of High Hill Cottages, Settle, That his son, Pte. R.H. Maunders, has been wounded in action in France. In a letter from Captain Tunstill, it appears he was shot through the face by a German sniper, and was going on nicely. Pte. Maunders is at present at the Australian Hospital at Wimereux. He joined Kitchener’s Army at the outbreak of war.

The same edition also carried a letter written by Sergt Harry Singleton, serving in France. He was the brother of Robert Singleton (see 31^st July), who had been one of Tunstill’s original volunteers, but had been discharged as unfit in January 1915.

BOLTON-BY-BOWLAND
BOWLAND SOLDIER AND THE STAY-AT-HOMES

The following is a copy of a letter received by Mr. Lambert from Sergt. H. Singleton of the 50^th Field Ambulance in France: “The parcel of cigarettes came to hand this morning in fine condition, and I should like to convey my thanks to the Committee, not only for the gift itself but also for the kind thoughts which prompted it. It is very nice indeed to know we are not forgotten by the people at home, and it cheers us up to hear from them out here. I notice on your enclosed slip of paper that the Committee thanks us for what we are doing for them and for everyone. What would you have us do? I would not be in the position of many lads for all the wealth of the Orient. Don’t thank us for doing our duty, but if you would show your appreciation of our services, send out twice as many more of the Bolton men. They are there! Waiting to be fetched I guess? I notice your reference to munitions workers, but munitions is the sphere for overage men and ineligibles, not for strong young men who ought to be carrying a gun. Others marry and contemplate marriage with never a thought of anything but their own comfort, and the making of money. Married or single they will all have to come if they intend the war to end in our favour, so why not make up their minds to 'do it now’. My two best friends out here are two young married men with families of their own, and yet they would not be anywhere else for worlds.

I wish all young men could be moved to a sense of their responsibilities. Possibly they are afraid they might get hurt! If such be the case perhaps it is best for them to stick where they are, as there is no room out here for cowards. While their schoolmates and friends are being killed and injured and captured every day they hang about their father’s farms etc, doing an old man out of a job. If they could only see the sights we get at times I am sure they would enlist tomorrow.

What would they say if they came one day and found the whole village lying in ruins, blown almost out of recognition, and the women and children gone – outcasts and refugees to a strange land; the church even burnt to the ground; the men all gone to the wall with the exception of a lucky few who ran for it. I have seen it, not once only, but many times, and I can tell you it’s no fun when one thinks of what they were before the war. The war is ruining this country and it looks like ruining England if it does not end soon. Within ten yards of me as I write this there are two Belgian farmers who had to leave all they had. Neither of them knows how his family is or where they are.

These men are working as farm labourers with the French farmer who owns the land on which we are at present. This country is capable of doing a lot, but they can do little if we don’t help them as much in the next year as in the last, and now that the Balkan business has come to a head, we shall have to move a lot from here, and their places will have to be taken by someone.

 

 

Thursday 28th October 1915

Billets at Estaires

The weather remained very wet and the Battalion again provided large working parties in support of the Royal Engineers. Orders were received that the Battalion was to be prepared to relieve 1^st Worcesters in reserve trenches near Fauquissart.

Pte. William Knox (see 27^th October) again wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters).

“… Tell Lizzie her lemon tarts are champion. There were four of them smashed so I ate them for my supper. The parkin bun was very nice too. Parcels are very nice and very acceptable out here I can tell you. I have tried the Oxo Patent and it works very well. It only took it ten minutes to boil it so we shall be able to make some of a cold night. We have heard today that we are going into the trenches again on Saturday night but not in the firing line, but we are nowhere safe in the reserve trenches as they shell them very often. … The Serbians seem to be in a very serious state by what the papers said the other morning. It would be a jolly good job when this rotten war is all over so we can all get home to the ones we love so well. The weather is absolutely rotten here just at present. It is raining again all day today. I pity the poor soldiers in the trenches. They will be wet through and they will have to stick it just the same”.

Pte. Willie Marsden (see 20^th October), who had only re-joined the Battlion the previous day following treatment for eczema, was admitted to 60^th Field Ambulance with a diagnosis of scabies. He would be treated for a week before being discharged to re-join the Battalion on 5^th November.

Pte. John Beaumont was transferred to the Motor Transport Section of the Army Service Corps. He was an original member of the Battalion, having enlisted in Bradford on 22^nd September 1914, aged 25 and working as an electroplater.

Wednesday 27th October 1915

Billets at Estaires

The wet weather of the previous few days continued and the Battalion again provided large working parties.

Pte. Willie Parkin (see 28^th September) was reported by Cpl. John Bargh (see 23rd August) and L.Cpl. William Edmondson Gaunt (see 1^st May) as ‘refusing to obey an order’; on the orders of Lt. Col. Bartholomew (see 13^th October) he would be ordered to undergo ten days’ Field Punishment No.2.

Pte. William Knox (see 26^th October) again wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters).

“… The weather is very unsettled here just at present and the streets are so very dirty it is over our boots in sludge. I think France is one of the most insanitary places I have been in. There is no drainage whatever. I can tell you it is a lot different to old England. It will be a treat to get back home again where the places are a bit clean. … I have not told you before that I have been under the Doctor for three days with pains in my stomach but I am quite well again now. The Doctor gave me a dose of castor oil on Sunday and I got light duty so I lay down all the afternoon but by gum the castor oil wasn’t half rotten. It made me as sick as a horse but it did me a lot of good. We were to go on parade this morning at nine and just as we were going to get ready it started to rain so we could not have a parade at all. We were all disappointed you may bet. ... We have had some pay since we have been over here. It is in five Francs notes. I have drawn 15 Francs. It is rotten when you go into a shop to buy anything they cannot understand what we say and they start jabbering back to us in French and we are about the same. Then we say to them ‘No compre’, which means I do not understand. You would laughed the first time I bought anything here. I gave them half a crown in our money and it came to threepence and he gave me two francs, a fifty cent and 3d. and I thought he had given me 2/9 change, but they told me it was 2/3 in our money. Their francs are the same size as our shillings and their 50 cents look just like sixpences. I would send you one of each only it would be ten to one if you got them, so I will not venture. We are expecting going into the trenches again on Saturday and it will be a very warm shop by all accounts. Some of our men have been out there working with the Royal Engineers and they say that between our front line and theirs you can see men lying dead in all shapes; some kneeling with the full pack on. It must be awful. They were telling us that the Germans were having a bit of a do as they could hear a gramophone playing. So now you may guess how near one trench is to another. It is expected to be a very great attack here before so very much longer. ... I received the Green Un (this was the nickname for the local Sheffield Saturday evening sports newspaper) and Answers last night. I’m glad you sent me Answers as it has some nice reading in it and it will pass the nights on very nicely as it is not often I go out of a night. I think I told you in my last letter not to send me no more Oxo Cubes as we have plenty given out to us every day but do not forget to send me some candles now and again as they are very dear here and they only last about two hours. … We went for a bath on Saturday afternoon and we had to walk nearly five miles and when we got there we had to bath ourselves in a tub and it was a sight. Sixty of us in different tubs at once. I should like a snap shot of it to send to you. When we were going we saw two mules and a transport fall into a river and both were drowned. But the driver was saved but was all but done for. We have heard this morning that two of our chaps were killed yesterday, Tuesday, but not in our Company (Ptes. Isaac Beardsley (14528) and Ellis Gill (15918), see 26^th October). …”.

Tuesday 26th October 1915

Billets at Estaires

Working parties were again provided for the Royal Engineers as the weather remained wet.

A working party from ‘C’ Company were assisting 173^rd Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers, in an area known as the ‘Duck’s Bill’ when they came under heavy shelling. The incident was described in a letter written by 2Lt. Christopher Snell (see below) outlining the circumstances under which Pte. Sydney Wakefield (see below) would be awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal; “I am the officer in command of his platoon and, as he will be too shy to tell you why he has been thus honoured, it has occurred to me that I ought to let you know how well he behaved on the occasion he won it. The platoon was working on a mine for the Royal Engineers and his particular job at the time was working a pump which pumped air into the mine shaft and let the men down below the ground work with freedom and in decent air. The Germans started shelling the vicinity of the shaft head and the Royal Engineer officer in charge of the party told the men that they could stop work and seek safety. The men refused and Wakefield was largely instrumental in working the pump all the time the Germans were putting 200 shells near to the shaft head. All the time he was in danger. The whole platoon behaved magnificently but your brother was chosen as the recipient of the DCM. Personally, I am awfully pleased he got the medal for he is a jolly good soldier in every way and ever since he joined the Army he has done his best. I know you will be pleased to hear how well he has done. I only hope he will bring greater honour to my platoon by getting a VC and a few other things. I might add, perhaps, that had he not volunteered to go on pumping at the time the work down below would have had to stop. He was remarkably cool the whole time”. The official record of the incident stated, “when the enemy opened a heavy fire on a shaft head, though ordered to move back under cover, he continued to work the pumps which supplied air to the men in the mine and kept the mine free of water even after the shaft head had been struck by a shell”.

Two men from the platoon were killed during the shelling. Both Ptes. Isaac Beardsley and Ellis Gill had been original members of the Battalion. Pte. Beardsley was a 23 year-old weaver from Golcar and Gill was a 19 year-old brass moulder from Bradford. The circumstances of Beardsley’s death were described in a letter to his sister, written by Lt. George Reginald Charles Heale (see 27^th August): "You will have been informed by the War Office of the sad loss you have sustained in the death of your brother.  He died in action and was killed during an exceptionally heavy shellfire raid, two hundred high explosive shells having being sent within fifty yards from where he and others were working.  The Royal Engineers Officer who was there spoke in the highest terms of the conduct of the men during that terrible ordeal and your brother was killed when on his way to stand to arms to repel an expected attack.  I have always considered him the best man in the platoon and it was always a matter of regret that he would not accept promotion.  He was an exemplary soldier and by his good conduct and constant cheerfulness he earned the goodwill and respect of all the Officers, N.C.O's and men of the Company.  His loss is a great blow to me, his death must have been absolutely instantaneous and it must be a comfort to you to know that he suffered no pain.  Please accept my sincere sympathy and consolation in your terrible loss”. Isaac Beardsley now has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial. Lt. Heale also wrote to the parents of Pte. Ellis Gill; “I very much regret to inform you that your son, Ellis, was killed in action  yesterday. He was with a party that came under very heavy shell fire, 200 high explosive shells being fired within 50 yards of where they were working. He was killed instantaneously and his face was perfectly calm and had a happy expression when we found him. He had been in my platoon ever since he joined us, and I always found him cheerful and willing. I never had occasion to find fault with him and I liked him very much. He also earned the good opinion of all the men in the platoon and the NCOs of the Company. His personal effects, including a parcel that has just come, will be sent through the official channels. I enclose a letter he had written to his aunt. They have had rather a rough time lately, or rather they did two weeks ago, but it has been made as easy for them as conditions would permit. Through it all, whether rough or easy, I have never seen him with a gloomy expression. He was always cheerful and I shall miss him very much. In conclusion, allow me to express my sincerest sympathy for you and all his family, as I can understand how fond you all must have been of him”.  Pte. Gill would be buried at Rue-du-Bacquerot No.1 Military Cemetery, near Laventie.

2Lt. Christopher Snell was born 1^st February 1895, the second son of Rev. Bernard Joseph Snell and his wife Kate. Rev. Snell was a prominent Methodist minister and author of several books on religion; in August 1914 he had preached a sermon at Brixton Congregational Church, outlining the origins of the war and the text of the sermon had subsequently been published as, ‘Plain Words about the War’. Christopher himself had been educated at Mill Hill School from 1906 to 1912 and had been an undergraduate at Wadham College, Oxford on the outbreak of war. He had enlisted in 13^th Battalion, London Regiment on 2^nd September 1914 and had been discharged to his commission with 10DWR on 2^nd December 1914.

2Lt. Christopher Snell

Pte. (Frank) Sydney Wakefield had been an original member of the Battalion. He was originally from Wiltshire but had moved, with his family, to Haworth and had latterly been living in Keighley with his aunt and her husband. He was 20 years old and had worked as a worsted spinner.

Pte. Sydney Wakefield
Image by kind permission of Andy Wade and MenofWorth

J.B. Priestley again wrote to his family, reassuring them that his discontent expressed in a previous letter (see 18^th October) was not, for him at least, a permanent state of mind: “You have taken my last letter too seriously; I was out of sorts and indulging in the ‘luxury of a grouse’. You must remember that this is supposed to the privilege of the British soldier. This endless trench fighting and trench making is very wearisome – we should very much prefer to jump over the parapet and drive the cowards out with the bayonet. … What I was grumbling about last letter was the extra-super-officiousness of most of the officers. I’m not grumbling about the ordinary work of the soldier out here. I take that as it comes, naturally. But when it comes to flagrant acts of injustice, my blood boils!”.

Pte. William Knox (see 23^rd October) wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters). He told her a little about conditions in Estaires and also expressed his preferences for future parcels from home.

“... I am very pleased to say that my toothache is quite better. It must have been the cold weather we had while we were in the trenches as I have not had it since we came out. I have received all your letters alright so far but have never received the Green Un (this was the nickname for the local Sheffield Saturday evening sports newspaper) or the Weekly Telegraph so I don’t expect you could have put the right address on them. ... I forgot to tell you before, when you send a parcel to put it in a good strong box as they get smashed so. When you send the next parcel will you send a few candles as they are so dear out here. They charge us 2d. each. They are not half making a good living out of the troops. They charge us double to what they ought to do. Yes Dear I bought two singlets before I came away from Lichfield with that money Grace sent me. I need no muffler or mits out here as I have got my cap comforter, also that pair of gloves that I had given me at Halifax. You ask me how I am getting on with my French. Not very well. It is a job to make them understand. Tatty wishes to be remembered to you. He is quite well. I have heard today that we are having another draft from Lichfield so I should think that Sugden and Terry will be amongst them. They are still under canvas as yet. It has been raining here all day today and it is over boot tops in dirt. We get plenty of tobacco and cigarettes given us here. I divide my lot out between the other chaps. I did not get drunk while I was in the pub and I take good care I never do so. …

PS Do not send any more Oxo Cubes as we get plenty here and some every day with our rations”.

Monday 25th October 1915

Billets at Estaires

The weather remained very wet as the Battalion again provided large working parties.

Two men from Tunstill’s Company were transferred to the Army Service Corps. Pte. James Wilson (see 15^th April) had been a chauffeur before the war and the Army now took advantage of his skill and he became a lorry driver with the Motor Transport Section. He continued to serve in France until April 1917. Pte. Ernest Jobling (see 16^th September 1914) was also transferred to the same section; he remained with the ASC for the rest of the war. A third man, Pte. Harry Martin, was also transferred to the ASC. He had also been an original member of the Battalion, but, in the absence of a surviving service record, I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or establish any details of his service.

Ernest Jobling (standing), with his younger brother, Joseph, who served in the Royal Navy

In a letter to his family at this time J.B. Priestley commented, with more than a hint of irony, on the dissatisfaction felt by many in the infantry about what they considered the ‘soft’ nature of some other jobs (including the ASC), as compared to the lot of the infantryman. “It is a grievance with our fellows and the infantry generally, the number of men out here with well paid, soft jobs; these bases are full of them – tradesmen of the ASC, AOC and APC men, and many of the RAMC and RE men. However we get the ‘glory’ out here, and these fellows acknowledge their indebtedness to the Infantry”.

 It may have been this contact with the ASC which prompted an entry in the War Diary a few days later, lamenting some of the difficulties the Battalion had experienced in securing appropriate transport;

“In all the moves the Battalion has undergone, the transport has proved the difficulty. If each Battalion was given four motor lorries, the whole of the work would be done more easily, and quicker. Although the initial outlay would be heavy, in the end it would be cheaper than the present system in that it would save forage for some 50 animals. Also it would relieve about 40 men for the fire trenches”.

Sunday 24th October 1915

Billets at Estaires

The Battalion again provided large working parties in support of the Royal Engineers. However, conditions were made worse as the weather turned and became very wet.

J.B. Priestley told his family just how difficult were the tasks he and his colleagues faced: “We have been digging trenches for the RE’s since we have been here; it is very hard work, as the soil is extremely heavy clay, the heaviest clay I have ever dug, and I’ve as much experience in digging as most navvies. You may gather the speed we work when a man has to do a ‘task’ – 6ft long, 4ft broad and 2ft 6ins deep in an afternoon. I had got right down to the bottom of the trench, and consequently every blooming shovelful of clay I got I had to throw a height of 12ft to get it out of the trench and over the parapet. You try it and see!”.

Pte. Richard Butler (see 8^th September), was fined seven days’ pay for missing church parade; he had a series of minor indiscretions already on his record, dating back to before the Battalion left England.

Saturday 23rd October 1915

Billets at Estaires

The weather remained fair and the Battalion again provided large working parties in support of the Royal Engineers.

J.B. Priestley described his billet in a letter home, “At the present time we are billeted in a fair-sized town, three companies of us in an old and very rickety flour mill. In order to get to the spot where I sleep, I have to go up three flights of rickety stairs, dodge under a quantity of beams and I’m ‘home’. This place is full of all sorts of troops including large numbers of Gurkhas, Sikhs and other Indian troops.”

Pte. William Knox (see 20^th October) also referred to the billets in a letter to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters). “… We are out of the trenches. As yet we do not know when we go in again. We have moved to another place. We are billeted in a great big flour mill. It is a very big town. I have given Jim McMath (Pte. James McMath, see 20^th October) his cigarettes and he thanks you very much for them. He said he thought someone would take pity on him and send him something and he wishes to be remembered to you. … it is rotten walking where we are now. The streets are in an awful state, so very greasy you take one step forward and slip back two …”.

The Halifax Courier published a report on a letter written by L.Cpl. Herbert Bowker (see 10^th September); “In a letter home (Bowker) says that his impression of war after a lengthy experience at the front, part of which has been gained in the thick of battle, is that it is a terrible thing, though he has no occasion to grumble, as they could not be more comfortable under the circumstances that prevail; in fact it is splendid the way they are looked after. Then there is plenty of adventure, a love for which flows in the blood of every Englishman, and is especially a characteristic of the men in khaki”.

Pte. William Hissett (see 23^rd September) was admitted via 2^nd Canadian Casualty Clearing Station to 26^th General Hospital at Etaples, suffering from an infection to his middle ear.

Sgt. Arthur Manks (see 18^th October), who had been wounded five days previously was evacuated to England; on arrival he would be admitted to hospital in Boscombe, Hants.

Friday 22nd October 1915

Billets at Estaires

Although the Battalion remained attached to 20^th Division, the arrangement to temporarily amalgamate 10DWR with 1^st Worcesters (see 21^st October) was cancelled. Instead, the Worcesters moved into the trenches Fauquissart and Chapigny while 10DWR, with the weather remaining fine, began to provide large working parties in support of the Royal Engineers.

Capt. Pereira of ‘D’ Company who had left the Battalion on 16^th October, having been taken ill, was transferred to 1^st Red Cross Hospital, Le Touquet, for further treatment; he was suffering from dysentery and jaundice (see 17^th October).

 

The weekly edition of the Craven Herald carried further news about the death of Pte. Willie Burley (see 8^th October) and also about the continuing fund-raising efforts to support Tunstill’s Company (see 16^th October):

BURNSALL SOLDIER DIES OF WOUNDS

Information has been received by the Rev. W. J. Stavert, rector of Burnsall, that Private W. Burley, of the 10th West Riding Regiment, has died in hospital at Cambridge from wounds received in action. Private Burley was brought to Burnsall several years ago by the Rector, in whose service he continued until he left to work in a quarry at Threshfield. He enlisted from the parish of Grassington, and the news will be received with genuine regret by those who knew him. The deceased was a member of the Golden Fleece Lodge of Oddfellows, Appletreewick. Deceased had a brother in the Army, and an unmarried sister who lives at Deal.

KIRKBY MALHAM

THE SOLDIERS “COMFORTS” FUND

A very successful concert was held at Hanlith Hall, Bell Busk, on Saturday by Mrs. Dudley Illingworth and Mrs. H.G. Tunstill in aid of the “Comforts” Fund for the 10th Battalion West Riding Regiment. A short but delightful programme was rendered by Mrs. Tunstill, Miss Morkill, Miss Ethel A. Astley, Mr. Frederick Lord and Mr. Milford, to whom many thanks are due. The items were – Cello solo, “Chant d’Atomne” (L.M. Tchaikowsky”, Miss Morkill; songs, “Bergere Legere”, “Maman dites Moi” (18th century songs), Miss Ethel A. Astley; recitations, “On Strike”, “How we Saved the Barge”, Mr. C.A. Milford; piano solo, “By a Moorland Stream” (F. Lord), Mr. F. Lord; duets, “Break Diviner Light” (Francis Allitsen), “I Wish I Were a Tiny Bird” (H. Lohr), Mrs. Tunstill and Miss Astley; recitations, “Fall In” (Begbie), Mr. Milford; song, “A Perfect Day”, Miss Ethel A. Astley and Miss Morkill.

The proceeds amounted to £41, which included contributions from several people who were unable to be present.

After the concert a small sale of work was held by the children, when the sum of over £30 was taken for the French Red Cross. The stallholders were the Misses Lilian and Christine Illingworth, Miss Barbara Roundell and Master Bertrand Goulden.

Among those present were: Lady Wilson, Miss Tempest and Miss Trappes Lomax; Mr. and Mrs. Morkill, Miss Morkill and Miss Burdon; Mrs Barrett and party, Mr. and Mrs. King-Wilkinson, Mr. John Brigg, Mr. L. Brigg, Miss Tottie, Miss MacGillivray, Mrs. Massey, Mr. and Mrs. Bairstow, Mrs. Nicholson and Mr. Humphreys, Miss May Mossman, Mrs. W. Thompson, Miss Gladys Dewhurst and Miss Bradley, Mrs. Sutcliffe-Smith and party, The Rev. and Mrs. Whyte, The Rev. H. and Mrs. Naylor, The Rev. D.R. and Mrs. Hall, Rev. C.J. Robinson, Mrs. And Miss Davis, The Misses Astley, Miss. D. Davis, Mr. and Mrs. John Waugh and Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Wales, Mrs. Rickards, Miss Wood, Mrs. Cameron, Mrs. Dixon, Lieutenant Edgar Behrens and party and Mrs. Goulden.

Thursday 21st October 1915

Billets at Fort Rompu

The Battalion again moved on after a single night stay; this time marching six miles to Estaires. Here they were to be attached to 20^th Division and temporarily ‘amalgamated’ with 1^st Battalion Worcestershire Regiment for training purposes. This was part of a wider ‘exchange’ of battalions which was intended to give the ‘new’ troops some experience alongside more established units. The arrangement, it was felt, also had the advantage of re-invigorating some of the more war-weary with the enthusiasm of the 23^rd Division men. It was said that they (the 23^rd Division troops) were “never happy unless they were patrolling No-Man’s Land or arranging some special ‘hate’, in the form of trench-mortaring or rifle-grenading. They also introduced the Lewis-gun, and we were greatly impressed with its usefulness”.  Lt. Dick Bolton (see 13^th October) later recalled that, “the Battalion was lent to the 20^th Division to replace one of theirs which was to train for a raid”. J.B. Priestley expressed his understanding of the reason for the attachment in a letter to his family: “it’s said that they’ve brought us down here to do these exciting jobs, as the regiments here are too nervy and won’t do ‘em. Anyhow the Battn is getting something of a name”. Whatever the reason, the ‘exchange’ of battalions between would last until 14th November when the divisions resumed their normal composition.

 

Back at home in Darwen, Mary Riding, wife of Pte. Thomas Riding (see 6^th February) gave birth to the couple’s first child; the boy would be named Thomas.

Wednesday 20th October 1915

Billets in Rue Marle

At 5.30pm the Battalion left Rue Marle, where there billets were taken over by 2^nd Battalion East Lancs Regiment, who were “to instruct Battalions of this Brigade in trench duties”. 10DWR marched four miles to Fort Rompu, where they remained overnight.

Before leaving Rue Marle Pte. William Knox (see 19^th October) again wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters). He would be less than complimentary about some of the other men of 10DWR.

“… My toothache is a lot better. It is an abscess and it burst during the night so it is much easier. Well Dear I am out of the trenches again for six or seven days and thank God I came out quite safe and well. We did not have many casualties. About 4 killed and 8 wounded. I saw one chap shot (Pte. Bob Maunders (see 18^th October). He was on sentry during the day and caught sight of a working party of Germans mending their trenches up and he called eight or nine men to let go at them, but old Fritz had got his eye on him and put a bullet in his neck and it came out of his cheek against his ear. He fell just as though he was dead but we gave him some rum and he came round again. So we dressed it with our field dressing and took him to the Doctor and he is going on very nicely I am pleased to say. We had it jolly hot for over four hours on Tuesday afternoon, the same day as I wrote your last letter, and we did not half let them have it. So they started shelling our trenches but we never got any in the trench where I was, but D Company copped out I can tell you. It was just like hell let loose but once our artillery got going they soon quietened down. It is alright being out here if we could get more sleep. We only got six hours altogether out of four days. I was that tired I walked back to our billet nearly asleep. They are a very chicken-hearted lot of men. They are very frightened when the Germans start shelling us. They crouch down in their dugouts every time they hear one coming and more often than not they are shelling a town two or three miles away. I think they thought they were going to frighten us to death. They were telling us all sorts of things to make us nervous. So I told them to wait and see until we got under fire and then we should see who were the most afraid and we showed them that we were made of the right sort of stuff. They were regular flabbergasted at us so our Sergeant asked us if we had been out before and when we told him it was our first time under fire he said we had surprised him. We are far ahead of this Battalion. They know practically nothing at all. You would have laughed on Sunday night. I was on sentry just about nine o’clock and I was looking through a loophole and saw a flash from a rifle. It was a sniper in a tree about 150 yards away so I let him have five rounds rapid fire and you should have seen them. They started playing the Devil with me. They said you will be having them put their machine guns on us. So I said serve you right if you can’t stand a joke without laughing. … You asked me to tell you what I wanted that stuff for (see Knox’s letter of 10^th October). Well Dear it was for to make some ointment to prevent me getting scabies again and the Harrison Pomade is to keep me clear from getting chatty (meaning infested with lice) as there is such a lot like that here. You can see them hunting all day long but more than them there are so many rats and mice running about. When you get a chance to sleep it is a ten to one chance that they run all over you and they don’t half give you a shock. … You can send me just what you like Dear. Something to eat but do not forget to put some chocolate in but I don’t want you to send me ever such a lot as it will cost you ever so much. I would sooner have a small one very week. You ought to see some of the big parcels some of the men receive. I was the first one of our draft to receive a letter. … You put in one of your letters that you could not put in what you like as others see them before I got it but they do not look at them at all. It is only ours that they censor but this letter may perhaps get through without it being censored with it being in an official envelope. We are allowed one every week, so you may look out for one long letter every week, so long as I am alright. I saw Jim McMath (Pte. James McMath, see 19^th October) this morning. I told him you were going to send him some cigarettes so he says you are the best old lass he knows. We are in the same billets. He is in my Company, only in a different Platoon. It is a great big barn where we are now just at present but we are going about three miles further on this afternoon to a proper rest camp, right away from the firing line”. 

Pte. Willie Marsden (see 4^th October) was admitted to 1^st Field Ambulance, suffering from eczema; he would be transferred to 23^rd Division Rest Station the following day and would be treated there until being discharged to duty on 27^th October.

Tuesday 19th October 1915

Front line trenches east of Bois Grenier.

Sgt. Arthur Manks (see 2^nd June), was wounded, suffering a (relatively minor) bullet wound to the head; the details of his immediate treatment are unknown.

In the evening the Battalion was relieved by 8^th Yorkshires and marched to billets at Rue Marle. Overnight, further orders were received that the Battalion was to stay only one night at Rue Marle before moving next morning to Fort Rompu, again staying only one night, before proceeding to Estaires, for a temporary attachment as part of the reserve to 20^th Division.

Prior to their departure from the trenches Pte. William Knox (see 18^th October) again wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters).

“… I have had toothache very badly since I have been in the trenches but I think it will be caused by getting cold in my gums. We are expecting coming out of the trenches tonight for a few days rest so I shall be able to write you a nice long letter tomorrow, Wednesday. We have had it very quiet while we have been in the trenches. There has been a few shells flying about this morning and they do not half make a row as they go rushing through the air. I am not quite sure whether we are leaving the trenches altogether. We may perhaps be going into the reserve trenches a good way behind the firing line or into billets where we were before. It has been very cold at nights. We have not had above eight hours sleep since Friday night so you may guess how we all feel it. It is sentry work of a night. You do one hour on sentry and one off so you see we cannot get to sleep at all because it makes you feel so rotten because you just about get nicely on when someone comes and gives you a good bump or something like that… You asked me what was the matter with my razor. Well it will not shave me at all. I have not had a shave for three days now and I can tell you I do look like a guy. I shall soon have a beard. You would have laughed at us this morning. There was only eight of us washed in the same lot of water besides others who shaved and there were only just over a pint to start with. It was just like washing yourself with soap by itself ... I never have my overcoat off now so you may guess how cold it is. Fancy the Germans having another air raid on London again. They are trying very hard to smash Little England up but they will never succeed. Jim McMath (Pte. James McMath, see 17^th October) is here with us but not Sugden. He is helping Bonner in the Sergeants’ Mess cookhouse so he will be alright now as he was always trying to get into that all along. I am writing to Sgt. Abslom one day this week just to let him know how we are getting on. He will be ever so pleased to hear from us. I wonder where they will be going to stay this winter? I heard before we came away that they were going into barracks at Lichfield so I don’t expect that will suit them very well…”.

Ptes. William Henry Dobson (see 18^th October), Bob Maunders (see 18^th October) and Henry Wood Thrippleton (see 17^th October), who had been at 70^th Field Ambulance at Erquinghem having been wounded over the previous days, were transferred to 3^rd Casualty Clearing Station at Bailleul. All three would, next day, be evacuated onboard no.16 Ambulance Train to Boulogne, but the details of their further treatment are unclear. Pte. Dobson seems to have remained in France and would re-join the Battalion. The wound suffered by Pte. Maunders was not considered severe and Tunstill himself would subsequently write to Maunders’ family, reassuring them that their son was being treated at the Australian Voluntary Hospital at Wimereux, where he was, ‘going on nicely’. From here it becomes difficult to be sure about the nature of Bob’s treatment, recovery and return to the Battalion. It is not clear whether he was evacuated to England or was treated exclusively in France. However at some point he did return to the Battalion. He was promoted Sergeant and was subsequently wounded for a second time. The date of this second incident has not yet been established but it seems that this certainly was sufficient to have Bob invalided back to England. Pte. Thrippleton would remain in France and would spend some time (details unknown) at a Convalescent Depot at Boulogne before re-joining the Battalion.

Monday 18th October 1915

Front line trenches east of Bois Grenier.

The weather remained fair, although some light rain fell during the day. 

In a letter to his former schoolmaster Pte. George Edward Bush described conditions in the line. George Edward Bush had enlisted in September 1914. He had been born in the summer of 1895 in the hamlet of Amber Hill, just outside Boston, Lincolnshire, the first child of Thomas and Annie Bush; their second child, Albert, was born two years later. By the time of the 1911 census 15 year-old George was working as a railway clerk and lodging with Mr. and Mrs. Batley at their home in spring Street, Idle, Bradford. He wrote, “I am writing this in a dugout in the firing line. Both sides are unusually quiet just now, but it generally is ‘peaceful’ during the day except for a shell now and again on the off chance of catching something. Our trenches are well made affairs – in fact it looks as if it had taken years instead of months to construct them. Every trench of any consequence is named or numbered and well it is so too, as when one once enters the communication trench leading to the firing line it reminds one of a puzzle garden and there are frequent cases of men getting lost. Plenty of ruined farms in our line – as a rule nothing left except about two feet or so of the outside walls. I have seen two Tubes brought to earth, beaten in a fight with our machines. I am a bomb thrower now. It is a ticklish job. Our chief duties are in the listening post at night between our firing line and the Germans and a man has to keep his wits about him in the ‘sap’ as we call it, watching for enemy patrols and working parties. The weather out here at present is fine, though very cold at nights, but as long as the rain keeps off we can manage a lot better as the least drop of wet makes an awful mess of a trench and there is no change of clothes in case of a soaking”.

However, the prolonged stay in the trenches, in steadily deteriorating weather conditions was clearly having an impact on the morale of some of the men. J.B. Priestley reflected on conditions in a letter home to his family: “It is quiet here (though the snipers are particularly deadly), monotonous and bitterly cold. The night, with its long, weary vigils, commences at 5pm and lasts until 5 am next day; I do no sleeping at night, and the result is that these 12 hours seem like a lifetime – spent near the Pole too, by the weather. I am feeling a little off colour these days, nothing serious, and the result is, nothing seems worth doing and everything a failure. Speaking seriously, I am disgusted with my Company officers as a whole, and the way in which our men are badgered and hampered by silly little rules and regulations which other regiments have not to submit to. In fact I am so ‘fed up’ of being compelled to bully men to obey this or that ridiculous little order that I have been thinking of reverting to the ranks.”

The snipers whom Priestley had mentioned led to two more men being wounded.

The two men wounded were Ptes. William Henry Dobson (see below) and Bob Maunders (see 13^th March). Pte. Dobson had been an original member of the Battalion. He was 25 years old and originally from Windermere but had lived for some time in Heckmondwike; he was married with two children and his wife, Susannah was pregnant with their third child. He suffered a relatively minor wound to his back. Pte. Bob Maunders (see 13^th March) had been shot through the face. Both men would be evacuated to 70^th Field Ambulance at Erquinghem. The circumstances of Maunders’ having been wounded would be described by Pte. William Knox (see 17^th October) (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters). “I saw one chap shot. He was on sentry during the day and caught sight of a working party of Germans mending their trenches up and he called eight or nine men to let go at them, but old Fritz had got his eye on him and put a bullet in his neck and it came out of his cheek against his ear. He fell just as though he was dead but we gave him some rum and he came round again. So we dressed it with our field dressing and took him to the Doctor and he is going on very nicely I am pleased to say”.

Pte. Fred Job (see 17^th October), who had been wounded the previous day, died at 6.30am of his wounds at 70^th Field Ambulance at Erquinghem; he would be buried at Erqinghem-Lys Churchyard Extension Cemetery. His sister, Mrs. Crowther, would subsequently receive two letters concerning the death and burial of her brother. Lt. Adolph Keith Lavarack (see 27^th August 1915) would write, “It is with deep regret that I write these few lines to tell you that Pte. F. Job was wounded yesterday and passed away this morning. I knew him very well and he was one of the best chaps in the platoon, always doing his work cheerfully and willingly. It was only yesterday that I was talking to him and asking him how the wound on his face was going on, which he received, as you probably know, a few days ago. I can only end by saying I always had the greatest admiration for him and I deeply sympathise with those to whom his death will mean so much grief”. The Battalion Chaplain, Rev. Wilfred Leveson Henderson (see 16^th September) would write, “I know that you have already heard the sad news of the death of your brother, but I felt that I would like to drop you a line to say how deeply I sympathise with you. There was little hope for him from the beginning, as it was an abdominal wound. I think of all wounds they are the most serious. He was a fine fellow and will be much missed by his comrades, with whom he was always popular. We buried him early on Monday morning. I thanked God for the example of his life and prayed that he might find eternal rest and peace. I think I may tell you that he lies in the parish church yard in ____________ , side by side with many other brave soldiers. I will see that a cross is erected to mark his grave. Both officers and men join with me in expressing their deepest sympathy. May God comfort and strengthen you”.

Bob Maunders (seated) along with another man (identity unknown) pictured in 'hospital blues' uniform which was issued to men undergoing medical treatment.
Photo by kind permission of Bob's son, Dennis Maunders.

 

Ptes. William Munday (see 11^th September) and Percy Simpson were appointed (unpaid) Lance Corporal. Simpson was an original member of the Battalion, having enlisted in Bradford on 12^th September 1914; he was 20 years old and had been working as a labourer in Halifax.

In the evening orders were received that the Battalion would be relieved next day by 8^th Yorkshires.

Sunday 17th October 1915

Front line trenches east of Bois Grenier.

The fine weather of the previous few days continued, but with the nights and early mornings noticeably colder and with further foggy periods around dawn. Routine patrols were sent out and conditions were generally quiet, though two men were reported wounded by rifle fire. The men wounded were Ptes. Fred Job and Henry Wood Thrippleton, both of whom were original members of the Battalion. Pte. Job was 29 years old and from Brighouse and had worked as a mechanical engineer in Bradford; he suffered abdominal wounds. Pte. Thrippleton was a 32 year-old labourer from Brighouse; he had suffered wounds to his right leg. Both men would be evacuated to 70^th Field Ambulance at Erquinghem.

Pte. William Knox (see 12^th October) wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters).

“… Well Dear this will be the first letter that I have written in the trenches. We came in on Saturday night and we had no sooner got there when the Germans started at us pretty hot. The bullets came just over our heads. It was a case of bob down, you’re spotted. You say you cannot say what you would like to do in your letters. You can say what you like as they do not censor them, only them as comes from over here. I had been looking out for a letter from you these last two or three days. It seems ages since I heard from you. The Captain of our Company has just given us all a parcel each. I got a writing pad, a handkerchief and pencil, so I think it is very good of him. I am on sentry today. I wished many a time last night I was in a comfortable bed. We had to lay on a bit of board in our clothes and I was perished all night long. I don’t expect we shall be able to take our clothes off at all while we are in the trenches as we never know when the Germans may open fire on us. He is a fair Devil old Fritz. He keeps having a pop at us all night long. He is a sniper and by God you must not put your head an inch above the parapet or else you get a bullet with your own regimental number on it and then you are out of action… I think I shall soon get used to trench life. I did not feel the least bit nervous for the first time under fire but of course we have not had it very bad as yet. It is very quiet where we are now. We are about 400 yards from the German trenches. They say it is very seldom that you see a German. I came across Jim McMath (Pte. James McMath, see 12^th October) yesterday. I had not seen him all the week. He came into the reserve trenches last Sunday week and I stayed at a billet. He had not had a shave for three days. He did not half look very different to what he did at the Sergeant’s Mess. You would have liked to have seen us washing this morning. There were only eight of us washed in the same lot of water in an old biscuit tin …”.

Having been admitted to hospital the previous day (see 16^th October), Capt. Pereira of ‘D’ Company, developed symptoms of jaundice.

Following treatment for gonorrhoea, Pte. Harry Shaw (12316) (see 4^th September) was discharged from 9^th Stationary Hospital at Le Havre to a rest camp, also at Le Havre, before being posted to 23^rd Infantry Base Depot at Etaples.

At home in Royton, Elizabeth Ann Slater died of meningitis at the age of eight months; she was the daughter of Pte. George Slater (see 29^th August).

Saturday 16th October 1915

Bois Grenier Line trenches

Capt. Pereira of ‘D’ Company, who had been ill for the last few days (see 12^th October) left the Battalion and was admitted to hospital to be treated for dysentery.

In the evening the Battalion moved forward to the front line trenches near Rue Gattignies, north-east of Rue du Bois, with Battalion HQ at Farm du Biez. They relieved 11^th West Yorkshires who had been in front line since 11^th October (having returned from their temporary attachment to 20^th Division). The War Diary reported that, “The trenches in this part of the line were good, some of the dugouts being made of cement, and there were several communication trenches to the Bois Grenier Line”.

 

CSM Vernon Stanley Tolley, serving with 1^st/4^th DWR, was killed in action; he would be buried at Bard Cottage Cemetery. He was the brother of L.Cpl. Alvin Edmond Tolley, (see 16^th October).

As Tunstill’s Company moved into the front line trenches, back at home fund-raising efforts to support them continued. A concert in aid of the ‘Comforts Fund’ was hosted by Geraldine Tunstill and Mrs. Florence Illingworth at the Illingworth’s family home at Hanlith Hall, Bell Busk,  and attended by members of many of the prominent local families. “A short but delightful programme was rendered”, which included Geraldine Tunstill performing a duet alongside Miss Ethel Astley; the pair sang “Break Diviner Light” and “I Wish I Were a Tiny Bird”. Among the other performers were Charles Archibald Milford, who had been a prominent figure in Tunstill’s original recruiting campaign, and Frederick Lord; both men had performed at the concert held immediately prior to the Company’s departure from Settle in September 1914 (see 19^th September 1914) . The event raised a total of £41, which included contributions from several people who were unable to attend on the evening.

After the concert a small ‘sale of work’ was held, with stalls hosted by the Illingworth’s daughters, Lilian (aged 9) and Christine (aged 6), along with Miss Barbara Roundell and Master Bertrand Goulden (possibly a Belgian refugee?).This raised more than £30 which was donated to the French Red Cross, a cause with which Dudley Illingworth, husband of Florence and owner of Hanlith Hall, was closely associated.

Front and reverse of contemporary 'postcard' promoting the fund-raising event. The illustration on the front was a well-known image, originally by Gustave Fraipont, of the burning of Reims Cathedral by German shellfire in September 1914.

Friday 15th October 1915

Bois Grenier Line trenches

As on the previous day, the weather remained fine, though foggy overnight and in the early morning, and conditions in the sector very quiet.

In the evening, orders were received for the Battalion to move into the front line next day, to relieve 11^th West Yorkshires.

Sgt. Henry Herbert Calvert (see 15^th September) wrote home with reflections on his recent experiences:

“We arrived here August 27 and have had a strenuous time as most units of this vast army. We have been in bombardment as heavy as any that has taken place, and I don’t think any regular line battalion behaved better under fire and under the muddy conditions of September 25. Few will forget it. We had 12 days straight off, some more, so we did very well for novices. We had few casualties – about 6 killed and 16 wounded. Lost no officers; we are proud of those we have. Have had 7 days’s rest and are back in the trenches but another part. Weather is much the same here as in England, damp and foggy mornings. We get up about 4 in the trenches so there will be no surprise from the enemy. I must mention the sleeping accommodation; great wooden ‘feathers’, a great coat, nothing to make you not want want to get up and any amount of company, ie mice and rats. I think we shall train a few of them to do odd jobs here; they can eat the food alright and can run all over you during the night. Never mind, you get used to anything, and I shall not be particular whose doorstep is the softest, as long as it has a corner for my back. It would do some of those young men good to screw courage up to come out to us. Why prefer to hang about Commercial Street and the Palace?”.

Thursday 14th October 1915

Bois Grenier Line trenches

The weather remained fine, though foggy overnight and in the early morning, and conditions in the sector very quiet.

Wednesday 13th October 1915

Bois Grenier Line trenches

The weather remained fine and conditions in the sector very quiet. Despite the illness suffered by some (see 12^th October), conditions in these trenches here were rather better than those which the Battalion had occupied to date; Lt. Dick Bolton (see 25^th September) remembered that these trenches, “offered more comfort than most places. Timber from the houses and even from the Church kept the braziers going well during the cold weather. These raids on the houses also resulted in discoveries of all kinds of oddments. One was surprised when going down a trench to meet someone in the blue tunic and red trousers of a French poilu or in complete female attire”.

Pte. Harry Wood (see 4^th March) was reported by Sgt. Sam Beveridge (see 16^th September) as ‘drunk about 8.30am’; on the orders of Lt. Col. Bartholomew (see 1^st October) he would undergo 21 days’ Field Punishment no.2.

Tuesday 12th October 1915

Bois Grenier Line trenches

The weather remained fine and conditions in the sector very quiet.

One of Tunstill’s fellow officers, Capt. Adrian O’Donnell Pereira of ‘D’ Company was taken ill; a subsequent medical report recorded that, “his illness began on 12^th October while in the trenches with diarrhoea and severe vomiting; he could not keep anything in his stomach for several days. He had headaches and a temperature of 102 degrees”. However, in the short term he remained with his Company.

Capt. Adrian O'Donnell Pereira

Pte. William Knox (see 10^th October) wrote to his wife, Ethel. (I am most grateful to Rachael Broadhead and family for allowing me access to William’s letters).

“... Well Dear I have not been in trenches as yet but expect going any moment now. We are in reserve. We are billeted at a pub so we are all right when we run dry (I don’t think). It is a very nice part where we are staying but they say the lower end of the town is simply a mass of ruins. We could hear the shells bursting over us yesterday and what gets over me the people seem as unconcerned as though nothing was happening. They seem as happy as if it was peace time. We seem to have got some very nice officers. In fact we are as much at home in this Battalion as we were in our own. Everyone seems as though they want to help us. Jim McMath (Pte. James McMath, see 7^th October) is in the trenches; been in since Sunday. I expect we shall go and relieve them before many more days. It seems a little bit quieter here just now but on Sunday it was one continual rumble all day long. We see many an airship flying about. We’ve seen six in the air at once and could see the German shells bursting all about them but they did not touch them. My address is Pte. W. Knox, no.14186, A Company, 10^th Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, BEF. I have got a very nice pal, L.Cpl. Gregan (L.Cpl. Owen Gregan, see 7^th October), one from our own Battalion; he used to be the Doctor’s orderly. I came across Sgt. Fricker’s son (Pte. George Wallace Fricker, see 16^th April 1915) last Sunday, but he is not in my Company. When you write let me know whether you received those things I left at Lichfield when we came away. It is a job to understand the people here and the money takes some reckoning up. It is the Francs that is equal to 10d. in our own money. You ought to see us in a morning. We have to cook our own breakfast. … Do not forget to send me a new razor as the one I have got will not shave me at all. You will think it was a rotten little letter I sent you and it was all about things I wanted. You will be thinking that I am always in wants. …. Do not forget to send me a Green Un (this was the nickname for the local Sheffield Saturday evening sports newspaper) to look at as it will pass the time on. We can get English papers every here every morning but it is all war and we shall see plenty of that without reading about it. … My word it is different over here to what it was in England. You see no young men strolling about the streets. It is a shame the young men at home who are slackers. It is about time something was done to make them all enlist. If they had only gone through half what the poor devils out here have done they would do their little bit for the dear old country. I am glad I listed, as when this war is all over and what is left of us we shall be able to say that we did our little share to save the Motherland from a brutal enemy. …

PS You can send me some more of that oatmeal soap as I have only 1 pot left and it is very dear out here. You have to pay pretty dear for everything”.

Cpl. William Johnson Simpson (see 11^th September), serving in France with 12^th West Yorks, was promoted Corporal; he would later be commissioned and serve with 10DWR.