Tuesday 4th December 1917

Support positions between roads 12 and 13 on the Montello.

Bright and sunny, but freezing all day in the shade.

Pte. James Butterworth (see 18^th November) was reported by Sgt. John Thomas Machin (see below) as having been ‘absent from 2pm parade’; on the orders of Capt. John Edward Lennard Payne MC (see 30^th November) he was to be confined to barracks for five days.

John Thomas Machin had originally served with 2DWR, arriving in France in May 1915; the circumstances of his re-posting to 10DWR are unknown.

Pte. Edwin Wright (see 22^nd November) was transferred from 38^th Casualty Clearing Station to 38^th Stationary Hospital in Genoa; he was now diagnosed as suffering from “P.U.O.” (pyrexia, or high temperature, of unknown origin).

It was around this time, although the precise date has not been established, that 2Lt. Edwin Merrall (see 27^th September) was posted back to France to serve with 2^nd Battalion Yorks. and Lancs.

Pte. Gott Fielding (see 15^th November), who had been under treatment in England for shellshock, was posted to 3DWR at North Shields.

Pte. Alec Radcliffe (see 27^th October), who had suffered facial wounds on 20^th September, was transferred from the Military Hospital at Parkhurst to Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup, where he would receive specialist care from the plastic surgery team headed by Dr. Harold Gillies.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Fred Ainley (see 18^th June) who had been killed in the German shelling of Ypres in January; his mother, Emma, was awarded 15s. per week.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Frank Beaumont (see 1^st September 1917) who had been killed in action in June 1917; his mother, Annie, was awarded 8s. per week.  

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. George Berthelemy (see 9^th October 1917), who had died of wounds in June; his mother, Maria, was awarded 3s. 6d. per week.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Arthur Gill (see 12^th September), who had been killed in action on 22^nd May; his widowed mother, Helen, was awarded 4s. per week.