Monday 28th May 1917

Boeschepe training area, near Watou

Another hot day as training continued.  

A draft of forty men joined the Battalion; a number of these men have been identified. Pte. Mark Butler was a 21 year-old labourer from Darlington. He had joined the 1^st/6^th (Territorial) Battalion in April 1914 and had spent two periods in France between April and December 1915 and September and December 1916; both times he had been invalided home suffering from trench foot. Pte. George Chamberlain was a 20 year-old labourer from Seaton Burn. Pte. John Oldfield Greenwood had attested in November 1915 but had not been called up until March 1917. He was 20 years old, from Skipton, and had been working as a “carriage washer” on the railways. Pte. Harry Hancock was a 22 year-old cotton piecer from Royton, near Oldham; he had served in France with 9DWR for three months before being evacuated to England in February 1917, suffering from ‘trench foot’. Pte. Joseph Hartley was a 20 year-old ‘finisher’ from Golcar. He had attested in January 1916 and had served in France with 9DWR from May 1916 until being evacuated to England, suffering from rheumatism, in November 1916. He had been posted back to France on 11^th May and had been due to join 2DWR before being re-posted to 10DWR. Pte. Harry Harwood was a 21 year-old weaver from Hebden Bridge. He had attested in January 1916 but had then failed to report for service in April. On being summoned to court in May he had reported that his emplloyers had they “would see to it … and that he need not go”; he had been fined £2 and handed over to the military. He had then been posted to France in August 1916 and had joined 2DWR. In December 1916 he had suffered from trench foot and had been evacuated to England. Pte. Joseph Henry Haywood was a 23 year-old miner, originally from Worcestershire, but had been living in Barnsley; he was married and his wife was pregnant with their first child. He had joined the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in September 1914 and had served briefly in France in September 1915 before being wounded and invalided back to England. He had a string of disciplinary offences whilst in England before being posted back to France in June 1916, where he spent several months at 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples. He had then been posted to 178^th Tunnelling Company. Whilst on leave in England in January 1917 he had been hit by a motor car and had spent two months in hospital being treated for his injuries. He had been transferred to the West Riding Regiment and posted back to France. Pte. Harold Raymond Hebdon was a 30 year-old book-keeper from Kirkburton. Pte. John William Kirby was a 28 year-old barber from Barnoldswick; he was married with one daughter. Pte. John Mooring was a 32 year-old grease extractor from Keighley; he was married with four children. He had attested in December 1915 and had been called up in June 1916. After training with 3DWR he had been posted to 2DWR in October 1916 and had been evacuated to England in December suffering from trench foot. He had been due to re-join 2DWR but had instead been posted to 10DWR. Pte. Herbert Ridley (see 11^th May) was re-joining the Battalion more than fourteen months after being wounded. Pte. John Edward Scott was a 20 year-old woolcomber from Shipley. He had married Ethel Gibbs in January 1915 and their son, Marshall, had been born six months later. Scott had attested in December 1915 and had been posted to France in September 1916, joining 8DWR. He had been posted back to England in January 1917, suffering from broncho-pneumonia, and had spent a month at the Southern General Hospital in Bristol. Once recovered he had been posted to 3DWR at Tynemouth and had twice been reported absent without leave before departing for France.   Pte. Elijah Sudworth (see 11^th May) was re-joining the Battalion after a period in England following a bout of influenza. Pte. Joseph William Sutcliffe was a 21 year-old mule spinner from Elland. He had attested in February 1916 and had been called up two months later. He had been posted to France to join 9DWR in September 1916 but had served only a month before being hospitalised due to ‘trench foot’. He had then been posted back to England in November and had only returned to France on 11^th May, being originally destined to join 2DWR before being being re-directed to 10DWR. Pte. Jacob Sweeting (see 20^th May) also re-joined the Battalion, which he had left having been wounded in action on 29^th July 1916. Pte. Harry Willey was 20 years old and from Laisterdyke, Bradford. He had attested under the Derby Scheme in December 1915 and had been called up in April 1916. In August 1916 he had been posted to France to join 2DWR and had been wounded in October, suffering wounds to his back and right leg. He had remained in England until being posted back to France on 4^th May. Pte. Herbert Willoughby was a 31 year-old painter and decorater from Shipley; he was married with two children. He had joined 9DWR in France on 10^th December 1916 but had evacuated to England after just three weeks, suffering from trench fever.

Also among this draft had been Pte. James Allen; he was a 33 year-old clerk from Camberwell. He had served eight years with the the Regiment from 1902 to 1910 and had been called up from the Army Reserve on 29^th January. He was married, but had no children. Like the rest of the draft he had arrived in France on 24^th May, but in his case there had been some doubt about his fitness and he had remained at 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples. Pte. Henry Richardson Oddy also arrived in France with this draft but was not immediately posted to 10DWR; in his case the reason for his delayed posting is unclear. He was a 32 year-old cotton spinner from Brighouse. Like both Allen and Oddy, Pte. James Lister Petty had arrived in France with this draft but did not join the Battalion immediately; as with Oddy, the reason for his departure from Etaples is unclear. He had been called up on 19^th January but had appealed against his call-up on the grounds that he had already volunteered to join the Honourable Artillery Company. After some investigation Petty appeared before an Appeals Tribunal in Bradford. It was reported that “Mr. Petty put up a very poor fight and the result was the Tribunal disallowed his claim”; a further (private) note added, “this man has been so exceedingly troublesome and is such a horrible snob that I think no choice (as to the Regiment to which he would be posted) should be allowed him … Incidentally, he is a liar!”. Petty was duly posted to DWR, rather than to the HAC.

L.Cpl Albert Earnshaw (see 8th May) was promoted Corporal.

Pte. Victor Alexander Wildman (see 5^th April) again found himself on a charge; on this occasion he was found to have been “unshaven on 8am parade”. He was reported by Sgt. Smith (unidentified)and sentenced by Capt. Adrian O’Donnell Pereira (see 14^th May).

L.Cpl. Harold Brooksbank (see 22^nd December 1916) was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch) which would later (in July 1917) become the Tank Corps.

Pte. Samuel Wilson (see 9^th April) re-joined the Battalion, having spent the previous seven weeks in hospital.

In a letter home to his wife Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 21^st May) told her, “I have just been told by General Babington (commanding 23^rd Division) that they have given me the Legion of Honour! So I have to go over to be kissed by the French C-in-C in a day or two I expect! Perhaps it is quaint that my only honour should be a French one! I know you will be pleased.”

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

Pte. Harold Dale (see 15^th May) was transferred from 10^th Convalescent Depot at Ecault back to 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples.

After spending five days at 32^nd Stationery Hospital at Wimereux, having been wounded in action, Ptes. Fred Morrell and William Postill Taylor (see 22^nd May) were evacuated to England onboard the Hospital Ship St. Andrew; on arrival in England they would be transferred to hospital in Bradford. 

Sgt. Norman Roberts MM (see 6^th April) was commissioned Temporary Second Lieutenant with the Machine Gun Corps; it has not yet been established exactly when he had left 10DWR.

2Lt. Norman Roberts MM

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Harry Braithwaite (see 6^th October 1916) who had been killed in action in October 1916; his widow, Eliza, was awarded £1 8s. 9d. per week.