Saturday 22nd July 1916

Bivouac at Millencourt

A further draft of 42 men joined the Battalion; they had been re-posted to 10DWR having originally been due to have joined 2DWR. Some of these men have been identified. Pte. Hugh Atkinson was a 25 year-old warehouseman from Halifax; he was married but had no children. Pte. Herbert Baldwin was a 20 year-old painter from Springhead, near Oldham. Pte. James Barker (12288) (see 22^nd May), was re-joining the Battalion from 11DWR after having been in England since having been wounded in February. Pte. Harry Barraclough was a 20 year-old textile worker from Laisterdyke, Bradford. Pte. Charles Barrett was a 22 year-old dyers’ labourer from Luddendenfoot. Pte. William Brooke was 28 years old and from Halifax. Pte. Wilfred Clarkson was a 22 year-old stationer’s manager from Bradford; prior to enlisting he had completed a four-month course in First Aid and become a member of the Military Home Hospital Reserve of the RAMC. Pte. John Clegg was a 22 year-old warehouseman from Bradford. Pte. Bertie Constantine was a 19 year-old textile worker from Shipley. Pte. John William Cooper (see 3^rd July) was re-joining the Battalion after being in England since having been wounded in October 1915.Pte. John Cork was a 22 year-old grocer’s assistant from Skipton; he had enlisted in December 1915. Pte. Luke Dawson was a 20 year-old warehouseman from Bradford. Pte. Frank Dodgson was a 21 year-old clerk from Huddersfield. Pte. Ralph Godfrey was a 20 year-old railway porter; he was originally from Worcester but had been living in Earby. Pte. Clifford Gough was 19 years old and from Drighlington. Pte. Jacob Carradice Green was 21 years old and from Skipton, where he worked as a carter for Mr. T. Duckett; he had also played football for local club Niffany Rovers. He had five brothers serving in the Army; Pte. John Thomas Green and Sgt. Albert Edward Green were both serving with other battalions of DWR; Pte. James Green (Tyneside Scottish); Driver William Henry Green (R.F.A.), and L.Cpl. Fred Green (Training Reserve Battalion). Pte. John Smith Hodgson was 22 years old married man from Oakworth. Pte. Henry Holroyd was a 23 year-old grocer from Bradford. Pte. Albert Tyerman was a 19 year-old apprentice joiner from Shipley. Pte. Charlie Wilman was a 24 year-old dyers’ labourer (working at Water Lane Dyeworks) from Bankfoot, Bradford; he was married, with two children, the younger of whom had only been born on 16^th July.

Pte. Jacob Carradice Green

Pte. John Smith Hodgson

Image by kind permission of Andy Wade and MenOfWorth

The sentence of one years’ imprisonment, without hard labour which had been previously imposed on Pte. Tom Darwin (see 13^th July), who had been absent without leave for four days, was now formally remitted, “on account of gallantry in action on 5^th July”. Darwin had been evacuated to England.

Similarly, the sentence of one years’ imprisonment, without hard labour which had been previously imposed on Pte. John Whitham (see 10^th July), who had been wounded on 10^th July, was also formally remitted, “on account of gallantry in action on 5^th July”. Whitham had been evacuated to England for further treatment to the wounds he had received in action.

Pte. John Beckwith (see 4^th June) who had left 10DWR after being wounded in March, finally re-joined the Battalion from 11^th (Reserve) Battalion.

Just five days after joining the battalion, Pte. Herbert Greenwood Audsley (see 17^th July) was admitted to 70^th Field Ambulance, suffering from “ICT, both feet” (‘trench foot’); he would spend a week at 23^rd Divisional Rest Station before re-joining.

Brig. Genl. T.S. Lambert, commanding 69^th Brigade, again wrote home to his wife (see 16^th July)

(I am greatly indebted to Juliet Lambert and to Robin Staveley for their generosity in allowing me to reproduce the letter and photograph here).

My dearest Geraldine

I am glad you have got some of my letters at last. I expect all letters were kept back for a bit but anyhow I was unable to write till some days after the event so I knew you could not get much news at first. I am sending you a photo of some of us with our trophies!

It is not a very good print but I have hopes of getting better ones some time. In fact I have two more which were given me and which are much better but as they are mounted I have not yet sent them off. They are taken, in front of a chateau we have recently been occupying, by a French count whom Div. H.Q. got to come over for the purpose. He was their landlord at the time and quite a nice old chap. He turned up with his wife and son. There were some other machine guns found too but these were all we actually could carry away and I have asked for them to be sent, 2 to Middlesboro’, 3 to Bradford, Yorks, 2 to Richmond and 2 to Halifax, as there were also two more which we took at the Horseshoe Trench a few days before but had sent away before the photo was taken. We quite regretted leaving our little chateau. It was a very nice spot though there was practically no furniture and what there was was very poor stuff. The grounds were very nice to get back to though. Now we have got on the move again and may be going forward to the actual front at any time. I hope we shall do as well as we did before but that depends on so many circumstances, especially on whether we get to parts we know something of and what we are up against and who we have to help us.

The photograph referred to in Lambert's letter. Letter is pictured seated centre, with his Battalion CO's seated, from left to right: Lt.Col. Hayne (10DWR); Lt.Col. Holmes (9th Yorks); Lt.Col. Vaughan (8th Yorks); Lt.Col. Barker (11th West Yorks.) Standing to the rear are Capt. Pullen(?) and Capt. Fraser

The photograph was taken outside the Chateua Molliens au Bois and annotation on the rear would suggest that the photographer (as noted by Lambert) was most likely Comte Jourdain de Thieulloy, who had a residence nearby at Saint Gratien.

Chateau de Molliens au Bois today. The façade was re-built in the 1950s (with some minor differences) following a fire during the Second World War.

Pte. Frank Pollard of 10DWR, though not of Tunstill’s Company died of wounds (presumably suffered at some point in the actions of the previous three weeks) at 3^rd Stationary Hospital. He was buried at St. Sever Cemetery, Rouen.

Pte. Stanley Basil Studd (see 9^th June) was discharged from New Court VAD Hospital in Cheltenham; he would have ten days’ leave before reporting to 11DWR at Brocton Camp, Staffs.

Pte. James Pickering (see 4^th July), serving with 11DWR at Brocton Camp, Staffs., was transferred to Army Reserve Class W and released to resume his former work at Tinsley Park Colliery, Sheffield.

Pte. Tom Nixon (11904) (see 5^th July) was discharged from a convalescent hospital in Eastbourne and posted to 11DWR at Brocton Camp, Staffs.

The weekly edition of the Keighley News carried reports on the death of Pte. John Reginald Butterfield (see 7^th July) and also of the wounding of Pte. Arnold Wakeling (see 8^th July):
Private Reginald Butterfield (17), West Riding Regiment, of 58 Enfield Street, Keighley, has been killed in action. The sad news was conveyed to his mother in a letter from his commanding officer in reply to a letter which she had written asking if her son could return from the front and serve in units at home. He enlisted in the early stages of the war at the age of 15 ½, and went abroad in February last. He was an old Keighley Trade and Grammar School boy, and before enlisting was employed as a clerk by the Great Northern Railway Company in the goods department at Keighley. He had been associated with the All Saints Church all his life, and for a few years was a member of the choir. He was a well-built lad for his age, and on his last visit home, stood 6ft 2 inches. An official communication was received from the War Office on Thursday.

Signaller Ernest Wakeling (actually Arnold) of the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, was wounded in the thigh by shrapnel on the afternoon of July 8^th. In a letter home he says, “Both sides were shelling like fury, and pieces flew and hit me just as I was going to sit down and have a little nap. We were right in the centre of the advance, in the hottest part of the line. Don’t trouble about me, I am a lucky fellow”, he concludes. He is at present in Bellahouston Hospital, Glasgow. Signaller Wakeling has two other brothers fighting; one of whom was wounded at the Dardanelles.

 

Pte. John Reginald Butterfield