Monday 10th June 1918

Front line trenches north-west of Mount Kaberlaba.

The Battalion was relieved by 12^th Durham Light Infantry and moved to huts at Granezza.

More cases of influenza were reported. Pte. Walter Eary (see 22^nd March) was admitted via 70^th Field Ambulance to 9^th Casualty Clearing Station; he would be discharged and re-join the Battalion after fifteen days. Cpl. Harold Best (see 22^nd March), L.Cpl. Cain Rothera MM (see 15^th March) and Ptes. Ernest Ashness (see 15^th March), Arthur Clark (25966) (see 22^nd February), James Grubb (see 25^th April) and William Hutchinson (see 22^nd February) were admitted to 70^th Field Ambulance, suffering from suspected influenza; each of them would be discharged and re-join the Battalion after between five and nine days.

Pte. Nathaniel Bather (see 21^st April), who had also been on the working party to Rocchetto Station, was admitted to hospital at Arquata Scrivia, suffering from influenza; he would be discharged to duty the following day, but would remain at the Base Depot at Arquata Scrivia.

Others, though not all, of the men who had been part of the working party which had been detached for the previous seven weeks at Rocchetto Station, south-east of Verona, now re-joined the Battalion. The size of the working party and its precise purpose are unknown, but the men who have been confirmed as now re-joining the Battalion were: Ptes. Robert Baldwin (see 21^st April); Joe Arthur Bentley (see 3^rd June); Percy Burrows (see 21^st April); Bertie Cox (see 21^st April); John William Farrer (see 5^th July 1917); Joseph Hadley (see 6^th June); William Hewitt (25172) (see 21^st April); William Naylor (see 21^st April) and Frederick William Warner (see 21^st April).

Cpl. William Foulds (see 15^th March), who had been absent since suffering an accidental injury in October 1917; and Ptes. Newton Dobson (see 5^th April) and Willie Holmes (see 18^th May) re-joined the Battalion from XIV Corps Reinforcement Camp at Arquata Scrivia.

CQMS Maurice Harcourt Denham (see 24th April) departed on two weeks’ leave in Italy.

CQMS Maurice Harcourt Denham

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Pte. Thomas Henry Fearn (see 3^rd April), who was at XIV Corps Reinforcement Camp at Arquata Scrivia, having been released from hospital following treatment for diarrhoea, was admitted via 21^st Field Ambulance to 39^th Casualty Clearing Station, suffering form influenza. He would be discharged to duty after ten days but would remain at the reinforcement camp.

Cpl. Michael Kenefick MM (see 13^th May) was reported ‘absent without leave’ from Northern Command School of Instruction at York.

Pte. James Moran (see 9^th June) appeared at Brighouse Borough Court; according to newspaper reports: ‘He was charged with having killed George Taylor Birkhead, dyer, of Turnpike Street, Elland, whom he found at his residence with his wife on the previous Sunday morning. After formal evidence had been given of the accused having given himself up, a remand for a week was granted. Later in the day, Mr. E.W. Norris (coroner) held an inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of Birkhead, when evidence was given that Moran, who had come home on escort from France, made an unexpected visit to his home early on Sunday morning and found Birkhead upstairs with his wife. The son of Moran, who witnessed the quarrel, stated that his father did not intend to do any harm to Birkhead and, in reply to Moran, his wife said that Birkhead had visited the house many times during the last twelve months. A verdict of manslaughter was returned, the jury being of the opinion that there had been great provocation. On leaving the court-house Moran was loudly cheered, while his wife was hooted by a large crowd’.


A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Frank Miller (see 19^th February), who had been officially ‘missing in action’ since October 1917; his mother, Mary, was awarded 5s. per week.

Official notice was published in the London Gazette stating that 2Lt. Billy Oldfield MM (see 31^st May), who had been severely wounded while serving in France with 1^st/4^th DWR and was currently being treated at 2^nd Northern General Hospital, Leeds, had relinquished his commission on grounds of ill-health. 

2Lt. Billy Oldfield MM

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton