Thursday 3rd May 1917

Billets at Steenvorde

Training continued on another beautiful day.

Pte. Frank William Rabjohn (see 1^st April) was tried by Field General Court Martial on a charge of ‘self-wounding’ arising from the wound he had suffered on 4^th October 1916; he was found not guilty.

Pte. Arthur Leeming (see 30^th April) was admitted to 69^th Field Ambulance at Landbouver Farm, north-west of Reninghest, suffering from myalgia.

Pte. Harold Peel (see 21^st February) was admitted, via 69^th Field Ambulance at Steenvorde, to 50^th Casualty Clearing Station at Hazebrouck, suffering from scabies.

LCpl. Christopher Longstaff (see 8^th March) was posted back to England in preparation for a course of officer training, prior to which he would have a period of leave.

L.Cpl. Christopher Longstaff

Pte. Richard Marsden (see 30^th April) was discharged from no.1 Convalescent Depot at Boulogne and posted to no.34 Infantry Base Depot at Etaples en route to re-joining the Battalion.

Following six weeks in hospital being treated for influenza, Pte. Albert John Start (see 26^th March), was discharged and posted to a Base Details Battalion at Abbeville.

L.Cpl. George Andrew Bridge (see 4^th February), who had been in England since having been wounded in January, was posted back to France en route to re-join 10DWR. However, on arrival at 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, he would instead be transferred to 8^th Yorks and Lancs, joining his Battalion on 20^th May. In the same draft as L.Cpl. Bridge was Cpl. Frederick McCall; he had also been an original member of the Battalion and had at some point (date and details unknown) been posted back to England. In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man. There were 45 other men in the same draft who were originally posted to 10DWR before being transferred to 8^th Yorks and Lancs; none of them ever actually served with 10DWR. A number had previously served overseas with other Dukes’ Battalions but the majority were being posted overseas for the first time.

Ptes. Albert Armitage (see 3^rd May) and Tom Darwin (see 19^th March), who had been in England since being wounded on the Somme in July 1916, most recently serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion, were posted back to France en route to re-join 10DWR. However, on arrival at 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples, Armitage would instead be posted to 2DWR.

Ptes. George Barber (see 1^st May), who had only two days previously been transferred to 26^th Durham Light Infantry, was reported as having been ‘absent from fatigues at 2pm’; he would ordered to be confined to barracks for three days.

Capt. George Reginald Charles Heale MC (see 4^th April) who had joined 2DWR just a month earlier, was reported ‘missing and wounded’ in action. His Battalion had attacked the Chemical Works near Fampoux (a task which two Divisions had failed to achieve during the previous three weeks). They attacked south of the railway with a final objective some two miles past the buildings. They advanced 2,000 yards in their attack and captured their second objective, the "Blue Line". However, they were then swept with machine gun fire and lost all the officers who had survived the initial rush. The survivors fell back to a position known as the “Black Line”, some 1,000 yards in front of the trenches they had left that morning. Casualties were very heavy with one officer and nine OR confirmed killed; nine officers (including Heale) and 279 OR missing and two officers and 103 OR wounded. One of the men reported wounded and missing and later regarded as killed in action was Pte. Fred Crabtree; he was a 22 year-old textile worker from Little Horton, Bradford and had originally served with 10DWR but had subsequently (date and details unknown) been transferred to 2DWR. At least six of the men reported missing were former 10DWR men: Sgt. Brian McAvan MM (see 29^th July 1916) and Ptes. Townend Barrett (see 10^th July 1916), James Bradley (18319) (see 22^nd March), Garforth Brooke (see 5^th July 1916), Samuel Butler (see 11^th July 1916), Fred Hird (see 16^th January) and Reginald Jerry Northin (see 4^th January). It would subsequently be accepted that Sgt. McAvan and Pte. Butler had been killed on or around 3^rd May; both have no known grave and are commemorated on the Arras Memorial. It would subsequently be established that all of the other five had been taken prisoner and would be held at a variety of prison camps. Pte. Northin had also been wounded, suffering wounds to his abdomen.

Capt. George Reginald Charles Heale MC

Pte. Sydney Whitaker was reported missing in action while serving with 2^nd/5^th West Yorks.; he was the younger brother of of Pte. Edgar Whitaker (see 20^th October 1916), who had been killed at Le Sars in October 1916.

L.Cpl. William Birch Holmes (known as ‘Birch’) (see 8^th October 1916), who had been in England since having been wounded in October 1916, was formally discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service on account of the wounds he had suffered; he would be awarded the Silver War Badge and an Army pension.