Tuesday 18th December 1917

Front line trenches on the Montello.

The weather remained fine all day but conditions were very muddy.

Brig. Genl. Lambert (see 16^th December) inspected another draft of about 150 men at Venegazzu. Amongst this draft were men who would be posted to 10DWR. They included Sgt. Albert Blackburn; he was from Bradford and had enlisted, aged 18 in May 1915. He had served in England with 3^rd/6^th DWR and had been promoted Corporal and Lance Sergeant in October 1915, Acting Sergeant in March 1916 and finally Sergeant shortly before leaving England in November 1917. Sgt. Joseph Patrick Melvin was 29 years old and from Bradford; he was married with two children. He had enlisted in August 1915 and had served in England with 3^rd/6^th DWR, rising to the rank of Corporal. He had been promoted Sergeant on being posted to join 10DWR in November. Pte. James Henry Lomax was a 25 year-old cotton bleacher from Greenfield; he had originally attested under the Derby Scheme in December 1915 and had been called up in June 1917, since when he had been in training in England. Pte. Richard Henry Wedgbury was a 30 year-old master printer from Bradford. He had served in France with 2^nd/4^th DWR from January 1917 until being wounded in April, since when he had been in England. Also among the draft were Ptes. Edward Anderson (see 1^st December), Fred Hargreaves (29267) (see 1^st December), Thomas Charles Jaques (see 1^st December) and William Henry Luke (see 1^st December), who were all re-joining the Battalion 18 days after being posted from 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples.

Pte. Fred Hargreaves (29267)

Image by kind permission of Patrick Hargreaves

Pte. Harold Charnock (see 8^th December) remembered that, “While we were in this Sector the Austrians displayed a large placard.  ‘Armistice signed with Russia’.  My Christmas in hospital”. (The armistice had been signed on 15^th December).

Pte. Thomas Caton (see 7^th November) was posted from Northern Command Depot at Ripon to 3DWR at North Shields; he would have two weeks leave before reporting for duty.

Pte. Thomas Irvin Wood MM (see 21^stSeptember), who had been in England since having been wounded on 20^th September, appeared before an Army Medical Board which recommended that he be discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service.

The German Red Cross replied to Mrs. Isabella Smith, mother of 2Lt. John Selby Armstrong Smith (see 10^th October), who had previously served with 10DWR, but had been reported wounded and missing in action while serving with 9DWR; she had previously written to them asking for any information regarding her son.

“In reply to your letter I beg to inform you that his name does not appear in any of the official lists of Prisoners of War or of those who have been buried by German troops. If he has not written to his relatives in spite of the permission to write which is in force in all the German camps and hospitals, it can only be concluded that he is not, and has not been, a prisoner of war in German lands. We recommend you to apply to the British War Office in London in order that his name may be included in the list of missing. By means of these lists, enquiries are made of prisoners of war in the various camps and hospitals regarding the fate of their missing comrades. If anything should be ascertained as to his whereabouts through this channel, you will receive notification direct from the War Office”.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. James William Brennan (see 18^th October), who had been killed in action on 7^th June; his sister-in-law, Harriet, who was guardian to his three children, was awarded 19s. per week.
A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. John William Clark (20782) (see 20^th November), his mother, Rosanna, was awarded 8s. 6d. per week.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Henry Downs (see 5^th September 1917) who had died of wounds on 8^th June 1917; his mother, Jane, was awarded 5s. per week.


A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Frederick Miller (see 7^th June 1917) who had been killed in action on 7^th June 1917; his mother, Louisa, was awarded 8s. per week.

The London Gazette published official notice of the names of a number of officers and men of 10DWR who had been mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s Despatch of 7^th November. They were: Lt.Col. Francis Washington Lethbridge DSO (see 3rd December), Maj. James Christopher Bull (see 16^th November), Lt. David Lewis Evans (see 15^th November), 2Lt. Vincent Edwards (see 20^th September), the late CSM James Davis MM (see 17th December) and Sgt. Ronald Jeckell (see 19^th November).