Thursday 25th April 1918

Billets at Cornedo Vicentino.

A very hot day.

2Lt. William George Wade (see 29^th June 1917) was promoted Lieutenant.

Lt. William George Wade

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

2Lt. James Henry Midgley reported for duty with the Battalion. He was 21 years old, originally from Halifax, and had first enlisted in December 1915, having spent eight months with the University of London OTC while training as a teacher. He had served in France with 21^st (Pioneer) Battalion, West Yorks. between June 1916 and July 1917, rising to the rank of Acting Lance Sergeant. He had then been posted back to England for a course of officer training with 16^th Officer Cadet Battalion at Rhyl and had been commissioned Temporary Second Lieutenant on 30^th January 1918.

Pte. James Grubb (see 24^th April), who had been put on a charge the previous day, was now reported by Sgt. John William Wardman MM (see 11th March), Cpl. Stanley Vyvyan Golledge (see 2^nd February) and Pte. Albert Reynolds (see 27^th March) as being “absent from billets at 8.30am”; he would be apprehended by Wardman at 8.45pm. Lt.Col. Francis Washington Lethbridge DSO (see 24^th April) would order Grubb to undergo a further seven days’ Field Punishment no.2.

Pte. Louis Charles Preen (see 21^st March) was also reported as absent from his billet at 8.30am, but he had been detained by 9.45am. However, Preen had then escaped from confinement and had not been apprehended.

Pte. Joseph Henry Haywood (see 22^nd April) was reported by Cpl. Fred Perry (see below) as “when on active service, drunk in the village”; on the orders of Lt. Col. Lethbridge he was to undergo seven days’ Field Punishment no.2.

Cpl. Fred Perry was 22 years old and from Halifax. He had previously served with 8DWR, at Gallipoli, and had been wounded on the Somme in 1916; he had then been transferred to 2DWR. The circumstances under which he had joined 10DWR are unknown.

Pte. James Butterworth (see 21^st March) was reported as having “dirty SAA on inspection”; on the orders of Lt. Thomas Beattie (see 30^th March) he was to be confined to barracks for seven days.

Pte. Claude Wilfred Norman (see 21^st October 1917) was ordered to be deprived of seven days’ pay; the nature of his offence is unknown.

Pte. Bertram Edwin Earney (see 24^th March) re-joined from leave; the reason for his delayed return is unclear.

Capt. Hugh William Lester MC (see 19^th March) was posted to France on secondment as Brigade Major to 11^th Infantry Brigade.

Capt. Hugh William Lester (2nd left), pictured in the Summer of 1917

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Ptes. Frank Dunn (see 23^rd March), Percival William Hall (see 29^th October 1917) and Frank Tucker (see 8^th January) were posted to XIV Corps Reinforcement Camp at Arquata Scrivia.

Pte. John Henry Evison (see 31^st December 1917) was admitted via 69^th Field Ambulance to 23^rd Division Rest Station; he was suffering from “ICT (inflammation of connective tissue) general”.

2Lt. Charles Leonard Chorley (see 31^st July 1917), serving with 2^nd/5^th Lancashire Fusiliers, was killed in action near Givenchy; he was a former member of 10DWR and brother of L.Cpl. Richard Cleasby Chorley (see 18^th April). The circumstances of his death would be reported in the History of the Lancashire Fusiliers, “At 2.30 p.m. a company from the 2nd/5th Battalion (Lieutenant-Colonel G.S. Brighten, D.S.O.) under Captain L.J. Sutton and one from the 1st/4th King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment attacked under a heavy barrage. The King's Own were successful in gaining their objectives, but the 2nd/5th were less fortunate, partly owing to the barrage not covering two important points on the frontage attacked. Nevertheless, distinguished gallantry was shown by a number of men, particularly by Private N. Turner who, when the advance of his party up a trench was checked, climbed on to the parapet under heavy machine-gun and rifle fire and bombed the Germans back, enabling his platoon to get forward. He was wounded early in the operation, but refused to go back and continued to bring messages to his platoon commander, Second-Lieutenant C.L. Chorley, and supplies of bombs to the forward troops, in spite of heavy shelling and machine-gun fire. Chorley fell mortally wounded, but Turner refused to leave him although the enemy, who had brought up reserves and had begun a counter-attack, were advancing. Indeed Turner, almost single-handed, held the Germans off for some time so as to enable Chorley to be taken back. For nearly six hours altogether from start to finish Turner was engaged in bombing encounters, often at very close quarters. The German counter-attack proved too strong and the company had to fight its way back to its starting point... Private Turner received the Distinguished Conduct Medal”. Although it would appear that Chorley would most likely have been buried, the site of his grave was lost in subsequent fighting and he is now commemorated on the Loos Memorial.

Pte. Edmund Peacock (see 6^th February) was posted back to France from 3DWR at North Shields; he would join 1^st/4^th DWR.

Pte. Arthur Butterfield (see 5^th July 1916), who had been wounded in July 1916, was posted to 2/6^th Battalion Durham Light Infantry; in the absence of a surviving service record it has not been possible to establish what had happened to him on the intervening period.

2Lt. Charles George Edward White (see 31^st August 1917), who had been in England since having been accidentally wounded in August 1917, was promoted Lieutenant.

George Henry Roberts (see 28^th September 1917), formerly of 10^th Battalion, who had relinquished his commission in September 1917 following a serious injury sustained while playing football, applied for a commission in the Royal Defence Corps. His application would be rejected on account of the number of officers already available.