Thursday 31st January 1918

Front line trenches on the Montello, between roads 14 and 19.

Lt. Frederick Lowther Dawson Barker (see 14^th November 1917) was promoted Captain.

Ptes. Jesse Barker MM (see 17^th December 1917), Jesse Ferns (see 5^th October 1917) and William Masters (see 5^th October 1917) departed on two weeks’ leave to England.

Pte. Edgar Baron (see 16^th December 1917) was reported by CSM Fred Pattison (see 8^th September 1917) and Sgt. John William Wardman MM (see 18^th January) as having been drunk; on the orders of Borrow he would be deprived of seven days’ pay and undergo 21 days’ Field Punishment no.1.

Sgt. John William Dickinson (see 6^th January) was posted from ‘E’ Base Depot at Le Havre to join 137 Prisoner of War Company. However, before joining his new unit he would have two weeks’ leave to England.

The Infantry Record Office in York replied to the recent War Office enquiry regarding Pte. John William Midgley (see 26^th January), who had been in hospital in Scotland having suffered wounds to his head and both legs in May 1917. They now confirmed that Midgley was still in hospital, but that they had made enquiries regarding his probable date of release and his fitness for civil employment, as had been requested by the War Office.

Pte. William Kay (see 10^th January) who had been in England having suffered severe wounds to his abdomen and right thigh on 7^th June 1917, was formally discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service. He was awarded a pension of 27s. 6d. for four weeks, reducing thereafter to 16s. 6d., with his case to be reviewed in one year.

A payment of £2 8s. 11d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the Pte. Joseph William Sutcliffe (see 20^th September 1917), who had been killed in action on 20^th September 1917; the payment would go to his father, Willie.

The only casualty recorded during the month was the death from wounds of L.Cpl. Gilbert Swift Greenwood (see 25^th January). The official cumulative casualty figures for the Battalion since arriving in France were thus:

Killed                                   275

Accidentally killed                5

Died of wounds                  21

Wounded                       1,280

Accidentally wounded       53

Missing                               178