Monday 30th April 1917

Billets at Steenvorde

Another fine hot day, which was spent in resting and cleaning. The detachment of two officers and 75 men who had spent the previous three weeks attached to 2^nd Canadian Tunnelling Company (see 7^th April) re-joined the Battalion. The marked improvement in the weather, and the effect on the collective mood, was expressed by Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 20^th April) in a letter home to his wife; “It has again been almost like a Summer’s day and everyone has been sunning himself in it! For the present we are in comfortable quarters, the men in big barns which are pleasant enough in this weather, and officers mostly in cottages … I suppose we shall be off to the hurly burly soon but I have no news of that sort. When we do move I daresay we shall want to be out of it again but at present everyone is feeling pleased and we are certainly all glad that we may not miss the whole thing”.

(I am greatly indebted to Juliet Lambert for her generosity in allowing me access to Brig. Genl. Lambert’s diary and letters).

After spending two weeks at no.32 Stationery Hospital at Wimereux being treated for influenza, Pte. Richard Marsden (see 14^th April) was transferred to no.1 Convalescent Depot at Boulogne.

Capt. Adrian O’Donnell Pereira (see 31^st March), returned to France en route to re-joining the Battalion. He had been in England for the previous six months having been treated for shellshock.

 

Capt. Adrian O'Donnell Pereira

Ptes. Herbert Ridley (see 3^rd March) and Pte. Richard Swallow (see 6^th January) were reported absent without leave having failed to return to Tynemouth off their final leave pass from 3DWR; both would return to duty four days overdue and be ordered to forfeit four days’ pay and serve four days’ field punishment number two.

Pte. George Hayes (see 23rd April), who had been absent without leave from 3DWR at North Shields for the previous week, returned to duty; the nature of his punishment is unknown.

Pte. Thomas Bulcock (see 23^rd February), who had been in England for the previous two months, was posted to 3DWR at North Shields.

2Lt. Charles Crowther Hart (see 8^th March), was among a number of junior officers, from a variety of regiments, seconded for service with the King’s African Rifles and posted to serve in East Africa. Hart would join 3/3^rd Battalion.

Back at home in Huddersfield Elizabeth Leeming gave birth to her first child, Ernest Arthur; her husband, Pte. Arthur Leeming (see 16^th January) was serving with 10DWR.

A further payment of £2 3s 11d was authorised, being the final amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Thomas Robinson Barwick (see 11^th January). An initial payment had been made to his mother in January and this further payment was now noted as having been made “at request of brother, William”; it would appear that William had initially been granted money in his brother’s will, but had passed the entitlement to their widowed mother. The payment was duly made to Mary Ann Barwick.

Pte. Thomas Robinson Barwick

A payment of £9 17s 10d was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Kit Ralph (see 16^th March) who had been killed at Le Sars. The payment would go to his brother, John. 

Pte. Kit Ralph

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Herbert Milton Wood (see 13^th March), who had been killed in action in October 1916; his mother, Sarah, was awarded 14s. 6d. per week.

As had been the case at the end of March, the Brigade War Diary again has no surviving list of casualties for the month. However, the Battalion war Diary does give the following figures:

10DWR’s casualties were recorded as:

Killed                                       1 (Pte. Walsh, see 22^nd April)

Accidentally killed                0

Died of wounds                    0

Wounded                              1 officer (Crocker) and 6 other ranks

Accidentally wounded        1

Missing                                  0

The official cumulative casualty figures for the Battalion since arriving in France were now:

Killed                                  158

Accidentally killed                4

Died of wounds                    7

Wounded                           779

Accidentally wounded       50

Missing                               116