Monday 17th September 1917

Bivouacs at Middle East Camp, north of La Clytte.

CSM Albert Edgar Palmer (see 24^th July) and Cpl. Wilfred Clarkson (see 9^th July) were both posted back to England to begin courses of officer training.

The five officers from the East Yorkshire Regiment who had arrived in France nine days previously now reported for duty on attachment to 10DWR. They were Lt. Erik Frost Helmsing and 2Lts. John Robert Cass, George Thomas Lotherington, William Taylor and 2Lt. John Henry Walker (see 8^th September). They had been posted to 10DWR on the request of Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 9^th September), who had recorded in his personal diary for 11^th September, “went to 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples; got seven (sic.) officers for 10^th West Ridings”.

Pte. Joseph Hartley (see 24^th July) was admitted via 133^rd Field Ambulance to 50^th Casualty Clearing Station, suffering from impetigo; he would be discharged and return to duty on 28^th September. 

Pte. Robert Whitaker (see 5^th July) was admitted to 11^th Casualty Clearing Station at Godewaersvelde, east of Poperinghe, suffering from trench fever; two days later he would be evacuated onboard no.15 Ambulance Train (details and destination unknown).

Pte. George Albert Wright (see 8^th September) was transferred from 34^th Infantry Base Depot, also at Etaples to 148^th Labour Company, Labour Corps.

Lt. Daniel William Paris Foster (see 23^rd February), former Quartermaster 10DWR, who had been in England since being taken ill in mid-November 1916 and had been posted to 3DWR, being unfit for further overseas service, was promoted Captain and posted as Adjutant of a Prisoner of War Camp at Winchester (he would later serve in a similar post in a Camp at Banbury).

Capt. Daniel William Paris Foster

Image by kind permission of the Trustees of the DWR Museum

L.Cpl. Henry Wood Thrippleton (see 29^th December 1916; it is not clear when he had been promoted), serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion at Gateshead, was reported as ‘overstaying his pass’; he would return three days later and would forfeit four days’ pay and be deprived of his Lance Corporal’s stripe.

Pte. Sydney Charles Nicholls (see 1^st May), who had been transferred to the Army Reserve Class P in May, after contracting ‘trench fever’ whilst in France, appeared before a further Army Medical Board. The Board confirmed his discharge from the service but declared his disability to be temporary and assessed it at less than 5%. He was, therefore not to be granted a service pension, but he was awarded a one-off gratuity payment of £33; this being made up of a basic payment of £15, plus £3 for his two years’ service and £15 in respect of his having three young children. He was also awarded the Silver War Badge.

A payment of £4 17s. 5d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. John Overend (see 6^th October 1916) who had been officially missing in action since October 1916; the payment would go to his father, William. 

The Supplement to the London Gazette published notice of the award of the Military Medal to L.Cpl. Wilson Pritchard, (see 14^th September). He had been awarded the decoration following his conduct in action in early August, “On August 3^rd, whilst acting as Corps Observer, when reinforcements were called for by a Battalion of the Gloucester Regiment. He took command of a party of 40 men and helped to repel a German counter-attack and on 5^th August, after breaking through and penetrating the German lines for a considerable distance his party was blown up in a German dug-out, and he dug out and rescued a wounded man of the Gloucester Regiment, carrying him about 1,000 yards through the German lines”.