Wednesday 21st November 1917

Billets at Concamarise.

The day was much colder with the overnight frost persisiting for much of the day. Starting at 7.14am the Battalion marched a further fourteen miles via Sanguinetto, Cerea and Legnago to Minerbe. At Lenago where they crossed the River Adige the Battalion received another memorable welcome, but also encountered defeated Italian troops, as recalled by Capt. William Norman Town (see 19^th November), “we marched through the town of Legnago amid scenes like those at Mantua.  As we emerged from the town and crossed the bridge over the Adige, chrysanthemums in rifle barrels and Sam Brownes till we looked like Jacks in the Green, we met groups of the broken Italian Army moving back, without rifles, without apparently much discipline.  One could not help wondering what they thought about things.  One thing which greatly impressed the Italian populace was the clean and smart turn-out of the 23^rd Division.  “These troops must have come straight from England,” they said, “they cannot have come from the fighting in France.”  

Pte. Walter Dey (see 29^th October) was admitted via 69^th Field Ambulance and 38^th Casualty Clearing Station to 11^th General Hospital in Genoa; he was suffering from ICT (inflammation of the connective tissue) in his neck and wrist.

Pte. Francis John Bottomley (see 31^st October), serving with 2/4^th DWR, was killed in action as the Battalion attacked near the village of Anneux, west of Cambrai; he was one of around 120 other ranks killed or wounded during the attack. It would appear that his body was initially identified and buried but the site of his grave was lost in subsequent fighting and he is now commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval.

Pte. Harold Walker Bray (see 10^th September), serving with 2/6^thDWR, was wounded in action, suffering injuries to his right eye and left hand. He appears to have remained in France, although the details of his treatment are unknown.

Pte. James Moran (see 21^st September) was formally transferred to the 4^th Labour Company, Labour Corps serving in France.

Capt. Bob Perks DSO (see 6^th November), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, wrote to his father, “I am busy in a small, petty and very annoying way.  I have very few men still but in all stages of training.  I got 20 poor raw recruits from Halifax yesterday but to-day they have pinched 30 from me who volunteered for India little guessing I expect at their probable future in Mesopotamia. However I seem to be becoming greatly in favour with the C.O. in this process which means he will try to keep me as long as possible. That is all right until after Christmas but I cannot really imagine myself indispensable after that.  On Friday I am to do a show for the Inspector General of Infantry with my Company – digging as the 10^th do it”. 

(I am greatly indebted to Janet Hudson for her kind permission to allow me to quote from Bob Perks’ correspondence).

Capt. Bob Perks DSO

Image by kind permission of Janet Hudson

Pte. Arthur Wideman (see 5^th October) was posted from Northern Command Depot at Ripon to 3DWR at North Shields.

Lt. George Stuart Hulburd (see 29^th October), who had been in England since having been wounded on 20^th September, wrote to War Office from no.19 Ward, Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot, with his application for a wound gratuity for the wounds he had suffered at Inverness Copse on 20^th Sept. (The letter was clearly written by someone else, and Hulburd added his signature in a very shaky hand).

Lt. George Stuart Hulburd

Image by kind permission of Paddy Ireland

The former Battalion Chaplain, Rev. Wilfred Leveson Henderson MC (see 25^th October), who had been severely wounded in the attack on the Messines Ridge on 7^th June, appeared before an Army Medical Board at Larkhill War Hospital, Glasgow. The Board recommended that he continue his treatment at the hospital and declared that his case would be re-examined in two months time. Five days later Henderson would write to the War Office requesting information about his eligibility for a wound gratuity.

Mary Ann Green wrote to the War Office in response to their recent request for a copy of her marriage certificate and children’s birth certificates, as the wife of Pte. Thomas Bates (see 11^th November); “I am writing these few lines in answer to your letter. I am sorry to tell you that I am not his wife but I have lived with him for years and I have tried all my hardest to get him home so that he could marry me and I got the banns in now if he was to come home as this is three times he has been away in 17 months and never had a days leave yet. Sir, I have never had nothing wrong with my pay before till now. Sir will you let me have the certificate back as soon as you can and three children are his Pte. T. Bates and 2 is mine. He is a widower and I am a widow and I would be pleased if you will kindly send me my draft book through”.

A payment of £2 3s. 4d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Joseph Clayton (see 21^st March), who had died whilst serving with 83^rd Training Reserve Battalion at Gateshead; the payment would go to his father, William.