Tuesday 15th January 1918

Billets at Biadene

Training continued

Pte. Joseph Holmes (see 17^th August 1917) was reported for “being drunk and using obscene language to an NCO”; he would be ordered to undergo 21 days’ Field Punishment no.1.

Pte. Willie Holmes (see 21^st December 1917) was reported for “causing a disturbance in billets after 10pm”; on the orders of Lts. Arthur Poynder Garratt (see 20^th September 1917) he was to be confined to barracks for seven days.

Pte. John Hargreaves (18009) (see 25^th November 1917) re-joined the Battalion from the Depot at Arquata Scrivia.

Pte. Hiram Tasker (see 22^nd December 1917), who had been in hospital for three weeks suffering from trench foot, re-joined the Battalion.

Pte. John Walter Gethen (see 19^th November 1917), serving with 69^th Trench Mortar Battery, was admitted to 70^th Field Ambulance, suffering from scabies; he would be discharged to duty five days later.

2Lt. John Robert Dickinson (see 29^th December 1917), who had been evacuated to England having suffered gas poisoning while serving with 2DWR in the line near Arras, appeared before an Army Medical Board assembled at Reading War Hospital. The Board found that, “he was exposed to shell gas and suffered from dyspnoea, headaches and a slight cough. He has now practically regained his strength”. He was instructed to join 3DWR at North Shields, following a period of leave to 6^th February.


A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. John Coltman (see 20^th October 1917), who had been killed in action in June 1917; his mother, Elizabeth, was awarded 8s. per week.