Thursday 25th October 1917

Zudausques

Training and range practice.

A series of medal presentations were held for those men who had been awarded decorations for their actions on 20^th September, although official notice of the awards would not be published in the London Gazette for some weeks. Among the men receiving their medal ribbons was CSM Charles Edward Parker MM (see 20^th September), who had been awarded the DCM. The circumstances were described in a subsequent newspaper report: “The whole Battalion turned out, the band played and the sergeants of the company carried him shoulder high while the ‘boys’ raised the heartiest of cheers and sang ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’. There were further jollifications in the evening when the general of the division shook hands cordially with the popular medallist and wished him the best of luck in the future”.

CSM Charles Edward Parker, MM, standing centre

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Pte. Patrick Sweeney (see 22^nd September), who had deserted on 19^th September and had been apprehended and placed in confinement on 22^nd September, appeared before a Field General Court Martial. Maj. Charles Bathurst MC (see 24^th October) sat as President of the Court and evidence was heard or statements reviewed from Capt. James Watson Paterson (see 14^th July), L.Sgt. George Heeley (see 5^th October), Cpl. William Henry Dobson (see 20^th September), and Ptes. Charles Simpson (I am unable to make a positive identification of this man) and Samuel Walker (see 21st October). Sweeney was found guilty and, as prescribed by Army regulations, sentenced to death. He was returned to confinement awaiting confirmation or communtation of sentence from Field Marshal Haig.

It was around this date (although the exact date is unknown), that the former Battalion Chaplain, Rev. Wilfred Leveson Henderson MC (see 2^nd October), who had been severely wounded in the attack on the Messines Ridge on 7^th June, was transferred from Miss McCaul’s Hospital, Welbeck Street, London (a former private nursing home) to Larkhill War Hospital, Glasgow.

Pte. Ernest Morrison (see 20^th January), who had been been wounded in January, was formally discharged from the Army as no longer fit for service. He was awarded a pension of 27s. 6d. for four weeks, reducing to 13s 9d. thereafter; his case was to be reviewed in one years’ time.


A payment of £1 6s. 4d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Harry Read (see 8^th June) who had died of wounds in June; the payment would go to his mother, Mary. She would also receive a parcel of her late son’s personal effects, comprising of, “Disc, correspondence, photos, knife, wallet, tin with cigarettes”.