Tuesday 12th March 1918

Billets at Castelfranco Veneto

The Battalion formed up at 9.37am marched 15 miles west, via Galliera, Citadella and Fontaniva to San Pietro in Gu.

On arrival at their new billets Pte. Lewis Batey (see 5^th July 1918) suffered an accidental injury to his right knee. The circumstances were described in a statement by L.Cpl. Harry Bailey (25248) (see 16^th November 1917), which was corroborated by L.Cpl. Reginald James Nosworthy (see 9^th February) and recorded by 2Lt. Keith Sagar Bain (see 2^nd March),

“On arrival of the Company in billets at St. Pietro in Gu, no.8 platoon, to which Pte. Batey belonged, was billeted in a loft. Pte. Batey went up the ladder to the loft and took off his equipment. He immediately began to descend the ladder. He placed his left foot on the first rung of the ladder below the floor of the loft and, while placing his right foot on the second rung, he slipped and fell to the floor, a distance of about twelve feet”.

Batey was admitted to 69^th Field Ambulance and then transferred to 23^rd Division Rest Station.

A congratulatory message was received at 69^th Brigade HQ and passed on to all units, 

“While the Brigade Commander was watching the Brigade group pass today, the C-in-C drove up from behind the column and stopped his car to congratulate the Brigade Commander on the excellent turnout and march discipline of the whole Brigade Group. A few minutes after he had left, the GOC 27^th Italian Army Corps, who had driven in the opposite direction from the head of the column, also stopped his car and got out to shake hands with the GOC and offer him his heartiest congratulations on the appearance and march discipline of the troops which he described as magnificent. The GOC desires that all ranks may be informed of this high praise which their efforts earned on the march today and is sure that it will be an encouragement to them to maintain this standard, both on the march and at all times”.

Pte. John Walter Gethen (see 15^th January), serving with 69^th Trench Mortar Battery, was reported absent from roll call at 8.30pm; he would not return until 8.25pm on 20^th March. On his return he was ordered to undergo 16 days Field Punishment no.1 and to forfeit nine days’ pay.

Pte. Richard Swallow (see 22^nd February), who had been in England since October 1917, was re-admitted to the Military Hospital in Halifax, suffering from boils; he would be discharged to duty after nine days.

Sgt. William Eley MM (see 23^rd March 1917), who was serving at the Dukes’ Regimental Depot in Halifax, having been posted back to England a year previously suffering from ‘neurasthenia’ and deafness in his left ear, was reprimanded for “neglect of duty … reporting a man absent from picquet when on pass”.

An examination conducted at the Ida Convalescent Hospital, Leeds on the condition of Carl Parrington Branthwaite (see 27^th July 1917), who had been permanently discharged from the Army on account of illness contracted in service, found him to be, “delicate, cheeks flushed, nutrition poor, wound unhealed with drainage tube in situ”. He was to remain in hospital.


A payment of £13 14s. 4d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Joseph Crabtree (see 20^th November 1917), who had died of wounds in November 1917 while serving with 2^nd/5^thDWR; the payment would go to his sole legatee, Mrs. Charlotte Wilkinson. (The connection between Pte. Crabtree and Mrs. Wilkinson is unclear, but Joseph Crabtree had spent many years as a child and young man in the Keighley Union Workhouse).

Image by kind permission of Andy Wade and MenOfWorth