Saturday 5th January 1918

Billets at Biadene

The weather for the next two weeks would remain very cold, with intense frosts.

Following their relief overnight (4^th/5^th) the men of the Battalion enjoyed their delayed Christmas dinner and a special performance by the Divisional Concert Party, ‘The Dumps’.

L.Cpl. Frank Easterby (see 18^th October 1917) was deprived of his rank and reduced to Private having been reported as ‘drunk on duty’.

A detailed kit inspection led to a number of men being reported for missing kit and iron rations; on the orders of Lt.Col. Francis Washington Lethbridge DSO (see 4^th January) all were to pay for the lost items. Ptes. Fred Clayton (see 16^th December 1917) and James Cowie (see 30^th October 1917) were reported by CQMS. Thomas Winder (see 8^th September 1917) and Sgt. Lionel Vickers (see 29^th November) for, respectively, ‘loss of cap badge’ and ‘loss of kit’ (detail unspecified). Pte. Walter James Biddle (see 3^rd December 1917) was also reported by Winder and Vickers, in his case for “loss of iron rations”. Pte. Ernest Locker Smith (see 29^th October 1917) was reported by Winder and Sgt. Joseph Maddison MM (see 17^th December 1917, it is not known when he had been promoted Sergeant) for ‘loss of kit’ (detail unspecified). Pte. Smith would also be reported on four successive days as being either dirty or improperly dressed on parade, resulting in a total of 14 days confined to barracks. Pte. John Malcolm Starbuck (see 30^th November 1917) was reported by Winder and Sgt. Frank Shelah Gilleard (see 24^th March 1917) for loss of his ‘housewife’ (the name given given to the personal ‘repair kit’ kept by soldiers). Pte. Walter Gee Wardley (see 16^th December 1917) was reported by Sgt. Richard Everson (see 9^th July), and L.Cpl. John Wright Pollard (see 29^th November 1917) as being, “deficient of cap badge”. Pte. Arthur Wood (29524) (see 3^rd December 1917) was reported by Winder and Sgt. John William Wardman MM (see 17^th December 1917) for “loss of canteen cover”.

Pte. Frederick George Westlake (see 29^th October 1917) was reported as having been, “dirty on 3.30pm parade”; on the orders of Capt. Dick Bolton MC (see 1^st January) he was to be confined to barracks for four days.

Pte. John Beckwith (see 31^st August 1916) was admitted, via 70^th Field Ambulance, to 39^th Casualty Clearing Station, suffering from inflammation to his right knee; two days later he would be further evacuated, by no.41 Ambulance Train (destination unknown).

Battalion Medical Officer Capt. Leslie Fraser Eiloart Jeffcoat (see 16^th December) returned from leave from England; Capt. Farquhar of 70^th Field Ambulance, who had been his temporary replacement, re-joined his unit.

Pte. John Richard Newell (see 15^th November 1917), who had been absent sick for the previous seven weeks, re-joined the Battalion from 11^th General Hospital in Genoa.

There was more positive news in the Keighley News regarding CQMS Frank Stephenson (see 13^th June), who had recently suffered a severe bout of pneumonia:

“Mrs. Frank Stephenson, of Park Lane, Sutton Mill, has received a letter from an Army chaplain, dated December 21, informing her that her husband, Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant Frank Stephenson, of the West Riding Regiment, was making satisfactory progress after a severe attack of pneumonia, and that he was at an Italian clearing station”.

CQMS Frank Stephenson

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Pte. John Lever (see 6^th October 1916), serving with 9DWR, died of wounds at 21^st Casualty Clearing Station at Ytres; he had been wounded six days previously. He would be buried at Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt.

Image from The Halifax Courier, 25th January 1918

Pte. Thomas Barber Dudley (see 19^th September 1917), serving with 787^th Employment Company, Labour Corps, was evacuated to England. On arriving in England, he would be admitted firstly to 3^rd Western General Hospital in Cardiff before being transferred, on 29^th January, to an Auxiliary Hospital in Tredegar. He was diagnosed as suffering from heart trouble, and it would later be recorded that he, “states that he was buried in the line (early in 1917, while serving with 10DWR) and since that his heart has troubled him. He was three months in hospital in France and then evacuated to England”.

Ptes. Charles William Hird (see 26^th December 1917) and Alfred Edward Wybrow MM (see 11^th November 1917), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, were posted back to France and would join 2DWR.

Pte. William Franklin (see 2^nd November 1917), serving at Northern Command Depot at Ripon, was reported for gambling in his billet; he was ordered to be confined to barracks for five days.

Pte. Herbert Greenwood Audsley (see 30^th August 1917) was posted to 3DWR at North Shields.

Capt. Bob Perks DSO (see 30^th December 1917) again wrote to his father regarding the problem which had seen him recently deployed on different duties with 3DWR. Although the nature of the affair remains unknown, his letter does make it clear that he blamed his change of circumstance on Capt. Gilbert Tunstill (see 10^th November 1917), who had, so Perks believed, been working against him during his absence on Christmas leave. However, Perks was anxious that no further rumours should be circulated about events, especially as others with 10DWR connections were, or might become, involved.

“Thanks very much for your letter.  Please keep enclosed receipts for me. Your cheeriness - all of you - bucks me up awfully.  Also everyone here is most awfully sympathetic including the adjutant and even the CO. I think he feels a lurking feeling of repentance and of having been done – by Tunstill.  Please do not breathe a word to anyone about any Captain doing me in even if you don’t mention names because if it were to come back via Longstaff (2Lt. Christopher Longstaff, see 27^th December, 1917; he had recently been posted to France to join 9^th Battalion West Yorks) or someone and anyone who hears it here is bound to know who it means without a name. I would tax Tunstill with it myself but Atkinson (Capt. John Atkinson, see 30^th May 1917), who gave me conclusive proof of it does not want me to pretend to know anything.  However, he admits to Atkinson he did try to do it and nearly got the Company which is what he was after but Atkinson was so annoyed at his treatment of me that he went and raked up Tunstill’s part to the C.O.!

Now I am doing very little indeed.  I was told good Captains were absolutely necessary for this company to put it straight and therefore I was still indispensable but from my observation it is straight now and I am hardly justifying my existence. I have my eye on another possibly small job and failing that I am thinking of overseas except that I want to get my teeth right".

 (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. Mark Beaumont (see 27^th October 1917), who, being no longer fit for active service, had been transferred to 7^th Battalion, Royal Defence Corps, appeared before an Army Medical Board assembled at Whitley Bay. The Board reported that, “He states he was a stretcher bearer in the reserve lines when he was hit with shrapnel on the left thigh. Sent to Base Hospital and operated on for removal of shrapnel. Sent to England. In hospital five months. He states he is unable to march and has pain in the wound on exertion”. The Board’s recommendation was he should be reclassified as currently unfit, but potentially fit in six months time. In the interim he would continue to serve with the RDC.