Wednesday 13th March 1918

Billets at San Pietro in Gu.

As the recent hot weather continued, the Battalion, starting at 9.45am, marched seven miles south-west to Marola, just east of the city of Vicenza.

Pte. Joseph Hadley (see 29^th October 1917) was reported by Sgt. Joseph Maddison MM (see 11^th March) for “slackness on the line of march”; on the orders of Capt. Dick Bolton MC (see 11^th March) he would be confined to barracks for seven days.

L.Cpl. Robert Henry Arnold (see 1^st December 1917) was reported by CSM Charles Edward Parker, DCM, MM (see 17^th February) and Cpls. Thomas Butler (see 1^st December 1917) and Charles Fleming (I am currently unable to make a positive identification of this man, beyond the fact that he had enlisted in March 1917) as “contravening fire orders, ie allowing a naked light to burn in his billet”; on the orders of Maj. James Christopher Bull MC (see 22^nd February) he was deprived of his Lance Corporal’s stripe, reduced to the ranks and ordered to be confined to barracks for five days.

Pte. Henry Grimshaw (see 8^th February) was ordered to undergo seven days’ Field Punishment no.2 and to forfeit two days’ pay; the nature of his offence is unknown.

L.Cpl. Martin Reddington (see 26^th January) was discharged from hospital and posted to XIV Corps Reinforcement Camp at Arquata Scrivia.

Pte. Leonard Briggs (see 8^th January) was discharged from 7^th Convalescent Depot at Boulogne and posted to ‘B’ Infantry Base Depot at Arques.

2Lt. William Edmondson Gaunt (see 31^st October 1917) embarked in England for Alexandria, where he was to join 2^nd/4^th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment.

Pte. Thomas Barber Dudley (see 5^th January), was discharged from an Auxiliary Hospital in Tredegar and granted ten days’ leave before joining the Non-Combatant Labour Corps.

Pte. Herbert Rushworth (see 20^th February) was formally discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service as a result of the wounds he had suffered on 20^th September 1917. He was awarded a pension of 27s. 6d. per week for four weeks, reducing thereafter to 13s. 9d. and to be reviewed in a year’s time.

At home in Newcastle-on-Tyne, Rachel Jackson, widow of the late Pte. James Jackson (see 21^st September 1917), who had been killed in action on 21^st September 1917, gave birth to their son; the child would be named John James Jackson. 

A payment of £2 7s. 8d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. John Myles Raw (see 11^th January), who had been killed in action on 20^th September 1917; the payment would go to his father, Robert. He would also receive a parcel of his son’s personal effects, comprising of, “purse, disc, key, 3d. piece (holed)”.