Friday 28th September 1917

In Reserve at Canal Bank Dugouts, on the Ypres-Comines canal, opposite Bedford House.

A hot and sunny day, after a light overnight frost.

There was heavy German shelling of British reserve and support positions. It seems to have been as a result of this shelling that Pte. Thomas Saunders was killed in action. He was 23 years old and from Ampthill, Beds; he had previously served with 8DWR, with whom he had gone out to Gallipoli in September 1915. Lt. Stephen Moss Mather (see 25^th September), who had only joined the Battalion three days previously, was also wounded; the details of his injuries are unknown but were sufficient to see him leave the Battalion. 

Cpl. Edwin Lightfoot (see 20th September), who had been wounded eight days previously, was evacuated to England (details unknown). Pte. Frederick McKell (see 20^th September), who had suffered shrapnel wounds to his legs, hands and face eight days previously, was evacuated to England from 2^nd Australian General Hospital at Wimereux, travelling onboard the Hospital ship St. Denis. On arrival in England he would be admitted to hospital in Cambridge. Pte. Edward Somers (see 20^th September), who had suffered a severe wound to his neck eight days previously, was also evacuated to England; on arrival in England he would be admitted to hospital in Cambridge (details unknown). Ptes. Charles Oldham (see 20^th September), Herbert Wood (see 20^th September) and Alfred Edward Wybrow MM (see 20^th September), all of whom had been wounded eight days previously, were evacuated to England from hospitals at Le Treport, travelling onboard the Hospital Ship St. Andrew. On arrival in England Oldham and Wybrow were transferred to 3^rd Northern General Hospital in Sheffield; the details of Wood’s treatment are unknown.

2Lt. Robert Sydney Clapham (see 26^th September), who had been severely wounded two days’ previously while serving with 12^th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment, died from his wounds at 61^st Casualty Clearing Station. He would be buried at Dozinghem Military Cemetery. His widow, Annie, was pregnant with their first child; the boy, who would be named after his father, would be born in December.

Lt. Thomas Beattie (see 28^th August), who had been serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion at Gateshead, was posted to France, en route to joining 10DWR.

L.Cpl. Norman Moorhouse (see 11^th June), who had been in England having been wounded on 7^th June, was sufficiently recovered to be posted to 3DWR at North Shields.

2Lt. George Henry Roberts (see 5^th June), formerly of 10^th Battalion, but currently on sick leave from 3DWR following compound fractures of his left tibia and fibula while playing football, formally relinquished his commission on grounds of his disability.