Monday 1st January 1917

Trenches east of Armagh Wood, I.24.d.7.1½. to I.30.a.4.0

Between 5pm and 6.30pm the Germans opened heavy trench mortar fire on the front line and artillery fire on the reserve and support positions, causing considerable damage and several casualties, including two men killed. The men killed were Pte. Harold Anderton (see 12^th November 1916) and Pte. William Butterfield (see 19^th December 1916), who had been with the Battalion for only two weeks. Both men were buried at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground. Among those wounded was Pte. James Duncan Foster (see 29^th November); he suffered severe wounds to his thigh and was evacuated to 8^th Stationery Hospital at Wimereux. Also wounded was Pte. Arthur Gill who had been posted to 10DWR having recovered from wounds suffered on 1^st July while serving with 2DWR (see 1^st July). Gill was wounded in the left leg and right arm, but the wounds were relatively minor and he appears to have been treated in France and not evacuated back to England.

Pte. Arthur Gill

The Divisional Trench Mortar Battery fired 145 rounds in reply “with good effect”.

Lt. James Oag, RAMC, was temporarily transferred from 69^th Field Ambulance to stand in as RMO for the Battalion; presumably this was in the absence of Battalion Medical Officer Capt. Cecil Berry (see 25^th November 1916).

Thirteen men from the Battalion were transferred to the Heavy Section of Machine Gun Corps, which was the unit which operated tanks and would later (in July 1917) become the Tank Corps. The men transferred were:

Pte. Allen Bentley (see 6^th June 1916) (76809).

Pte. Irvine Brammall (see 2^nd October 1916) (76813).

Pte. Fred Bridge (see 14^th November 1916) (76817).

Pte. Robert Flaherty (see 11^th September 1915) would serve as a gunner with ‘C’ Battalion.

Pte. Thomas Halliday (76812); in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or to establish any further details of his military career other than that he had only ever served with 10DWR and had joined the Battalion at some point after 1^st January 1916.

Cpl. Joseph Heaton (76846); in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or to establish any further details of his military career other than that he had only ever served with 10DWR and had joined the Battalion at some point after 1^st January 1916.

Cpl. William Morgan (76816). In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or to establish any further details of his military career other than that he had originally served with 8DWR, being posted to France in July 1915. When, and under what circumstances, he had joined 10DWR is unknown.

Pte. John Edmund Popplewell (see 5^th September 1916) (76808).

Pte. Thomas Hamilton Rawse (76811); he had been an original member of the Battalion, having enlisted in 1914 aged 21, working as a ‘crane lad on the railway’ and living in Bradford. In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to establish any further details of his military career.

Pte. Bryan Sheffield (see 5^th October 1916) (76814).

Cpl. William Watson (3/12294; 76815); he had originally served with 2DWR, having been posted to France in December 1914. He had been wounded in August 1915 and subsequently (date and details unknown), transferred to 10DWR. He was from Halifax, but, in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to establish any further details of his military career.

Pte. Gilbert Wilson (see 26^th May 1916) (76818).

Pte. Arthur Wood (14756) (76826); in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or to establish any further details of his military career other than that he had been an original member of 10DWR..

Battalion Adjutant Lt. Hugh William Lester (see 26^thNovember 1916) was awarded the Military Cross in the King’s birthday honours list. Another recipient of the same award was 2Lt. George Reginald Percy had (see 9^th November 1915) who had been among Tunstill’s original company but had been granted a commission with the Royal Engineers in June 1915.

Image by kind permission of the Trustees of the DWR Museum

2Lt. George Reginald Percy (back left), pictured in early 1915 with other NCOs of 10DWR

2Lt. Bob Perks, DSO (see 23^rd December), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, went home on leave.

2Lt. Bob Perks DSO

Image by kind permission of Janet Hudson

2Lt. George Henry Roberts (see 7^th December 1916), formerly of 10^th Battalion, but currently serving with 3DWR at North Shields, suffered compound fractures of his left tibia and fibula; “while playing at football was kicked causing above injuries. Was taken to North Shields Infirmary to operate upon and then transferred to Military Hospital, Newcastle and again operated upon”. He would remain in hospital until June.

Wilfred Frederick John Thomson joined the Inns of Court OTC; he would later be commissioned and serve with 10DWR. Wilfred Thomson was 27 years old (born 1^st June 1898) and the fourth child of William and Isobel Thomson and the family lived on the Strand in London, with William working as a bookseller and printer. William had died in 1898 and Wilfred had been working as an office manager for a firm of insurance brokers and underwriters. He had attested under the Derby Scheme on 3^rd December 1915 and had been on the army reserve for more than a year.