Wednesday 5th April 1916

Billets at Sains-en-Gohelle (Coron Fosse 10)

In between tours in the trenches the Battalion was again billeted in and around  Sains-en-Gohelle, where conditions were generally quiet and the billets regarded as reasonable. There was a danger of German shelling directed against the pithead known as Fosse 10, but there were few shells and largely of small calibre, with no damage reported. There was an intensification of British shelling in the vicinity in the evening and overnight.

A/Sgt. Robert William John Morris (see 9^th March) was now confirmed in his rank.

Pte. Harry Smith was admitted to 70^th Field Ambulance, and then transferred to no.7 Casualty Clearing Station; he was diagnosed as suffering from scabies and also from cellulitis in his right knee. He was an original member of the Battalion, though not of Tunstill’s Company. He had enlisted, aged 44 and married, on 19^th September 1914 and been posted to the newly-formed 10^th Battalion four days later and had gone out to France with the Battalion in Augst 1915. 

Pte. Stephen Grady (see 28^th February) reported sick, suffering from influenza, and was despatched to 70^th Field Ambulance. 

L.Cpl. Maurice Harcourt Denham (see 3^rd April), recently released from 2^nd Canadian General Hospital at Le Treport, having been treated for an ingrowing toenail, reported for duty at 23^rd Infantry Base Depot at Etaples.

Mrs. Louisa Ambler, widow of Pte. Harry Ambler (see 25^th March), who had died of wounds on 25^th March, wrote to the Regimental Depot at Halifax asking for further information about her husband as she “has heard that her husband has died of wounds”; no information could be provided to her as no official report of his death had yet been received. 

A payment of £2 2s. 11d was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. George William Elliott (see 28^th January), who had been killed in action in January; the payment would go to his widow, Emily.