Saturday 13th April 1918

Front line trenches between San Sisto and Poslen.

The recent cold, wet weather continued, with showers of rain, sleet and snow.

Pte. Tom Lister Ellison (see 7^th August 1917) was admitted via 71^st Field Ambulance to 23^rd Division Rest Station, suffering from diarrhoea.

Ptes. Thomas Bates (see 2^nd April) and Stanley Hirst (see 11^th March) re-joined the Battalion from leave.

2Lt. Billy Oldfield MM (see 11^th January), serving in France with 1^st/4^th DWR, suffered severe wounds in a German attack against British positions near Steam Mill, west of Bailleul. One officer and 16 other ranks were reported killed or missing in action and a further three officers, including Billty Oldfield, and 51 other ranks were wounded. Billy Oldfield suffered catastrophic injuries; according to a later medical report he was “wounded by a shell which destroyed both eyes, shattered his lower jaw, broke the lower end of his left ulna, severed the ring finger of his left hand and inflicted many other injuries”. He would be admitted to 14^th General Hospital at Wimereux.

2Lt. Billy Oldfield MM

Pte. Richard Marsden (see 8^th February), serving with 1^st/4^th DWR, was reported missing in action; he would subsequently be confirmed as having been taken prisoner and would spend time in camps at Limburg and Gardelegen. 

Pte. Thomas Walter Mellin (see 18^th November 1917), who had spent the previous five months in England working as a ‘skilled ploughman’ under War Office orders, was posted back to France and joined ‘F’ Infantry Base Depot at Etaples. However, within a week, he would be admitted to 20^th General Hospital at Camiers, having been identified as suffering from scabies.

Pte. Mark Beaumont (see 5^th January), who, being no longer fit for active service, had been transferred to 7^th Battalion, Royal Defence Corps, was transferred to ‘E’ Provisional Protection Company, Royal Defence Corps.

Pte. Samuel Walker (see 25^th October 1917), who had been evacuated to England in October 1917, was posted to 3DWR at North Shields.


A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Thomas William Jones (see 8^th February 1918), who had been killed in action on 20^th September 1917; his mother, Harriet, was awarded 7s. 6d. per week.