Sunday 29th September 1918

Billets in Creazzo.

Training continued.

A/CSM Albert Blackburn (see 13^th September) was appointed Warrant Officer Class II and Company Sergeant Major, B Company.

Pte. Albert Reynolds (see 23^rd July) was promoted Corporal.

A/Cpl. Alfred Bradbury (see 27^th August) was confirmed in his rank.

A/Cpl. Martin Jackson (see 31^st August) relinquished his acting rank and reverted to Lance Corporal.

Capt. Dick Bolton MC (see 9th September) departed on thirty days’ leave to England.

Capt. Dick Bolton MC

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Ptes. John Blackburn (see 20^th September), Arthur Clarke (see 13^th May 1917) and Edwin Wright (see 4^th April) departed on two weeks’ leave to England.

Ptes. Nathaniel Bather (see 1^st September), Reginald Dayson (see 20^th August) and Arthur Walton (see 11^th September) re-joined the Battalion from the Base Depot at Arquata Scrivia.

Pte. William Thomas Foley (see 26^th August), who had been wounded on 26^th August, was evacuated to England; the details of his treatment in England are unknown.

Pte. Fred Rawnsley (see 3^rd September), who was suffering from “mental illness, not yet diagnosed” was evacuated to England; once in England he would be committed to the Scalebor Park Asylum, Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Cpl.Harry Bailey (25248) (see 13^th September) and Ptes. William Atkinson (25980) (see 3^rd September), Thomas Henry Cox (25806) (see 31^st July), William Harper (25972) (see 18^th September), Joseph Livesey (see 4^th March), Joseph McDermott (see 22^nd April), Richard Metcalfe (see 20^th August) and James Stott (see 10^th July) re-joined the Battalion from the Base Depot at Arquata Scrivia.

Pte. Ramsden Pyrah also joined the Battalion; he was 25 years old and from Bradford. He had originally attested in December 1915 and had been called up in February 1916, being promoted Lance Corporal and Corporal whilst serving in France with 12DWR, which was a labour battalion. In May 1917 12DWR had been re-designated as 24^th Labour Company, Labour Corps. Cpl. Pyrah had then been transferred to 10DWR in June 1918 after recovering from a period in hospital in Etaples. He had arrived in Italy on 3^rd July, since when he had been at the Base Depot at Arquata Scrivia.

A number of men also joined the Battalion having been posted to France on 30^th August. They had spent a few days at ‘B’ Infantry Base Depot at Le Havre before beginning their journey to Italy. Those known to have been among this draft are:

Pte. Arthur Brook; he was a 22 year-old spinner from Gomersall. He had attested in March 1916 and had served in France with 2^nd/7^th DWR between February 1917 and April 1918, when he had suffered wounds to his right arm and had been evacuated to England. He had then served with 6DWR until being posted back to France.

Pte. Frederick Greenwood (201211) was a 27 year-old plumber from Halifax. He had enlisted in November 1914 but this was his first overseas posting. In the absence of a more complete surviving service record it has not been possible to establish why he had remained in England to this point.

Pte. Kingsley James Reeve; he was 25 years old and from Lowestoft. He had originally been called up to the Suffolk Regiment but had been transferred to the West Ridings and had served in France with 9DWR between September 1917 and February 1918. He had then been evacuated to England suffering from ‘trench fever’.

Pte. Arthur Simpson (201538) was a 21 year-old clerk from Halifax. He had enlisted in March 1915 and had remained in England until January 1917. He had suffered severe shrapnel wounds to his left buttock and left arm in November 1917 while serving with 2^nd/4^th DWR and had been evacuated to England. He had spent more than three months in hospital before returning to duty in England.

L.Cpl. Victor Lawson Smith; he was 22 years old and from Mirfield. He had joined 5^th (Reserve) Battalion in October 1914 and had served in France with 1^st/5^th DWR from April 1915. He had been wounded in August 1915 but had remained in France and had re-joined his Battalion after three months. He had then been wounded for a second time in September 1916 and invalided back to England. In October 1916 he had been transferred to the Army Reserve Class W to resume his civil employment, but had then been recalled in April 1918.

Pte. Charles Sidney Taylor; he was a 24 year-old dyers’ labourer from Bradford. He had served in France with 1^st/5^th DWR from June 1916 and had been slightly wounded, but remained at duty, in February 1917. He had been evacuated to England in October 1917 suffering from a severe case of ‘trench foot’, as a result of which he had spent six months in hospital and had also been treated for influenza in June 1918.

Pte. Arthur Lindsay (see 20^th October 1916), serving in France with 2^nd/4^th DWR, was wounded in action, suffering a bullet wound to his left hand; he would be evacuated to England and admitted to hospital in Halifax. Pte. Herbert Willis Pickles (see 12^th September), who had joined the same Battalion just ten days’ previously, was also wounded, suffering shrapnel wounds to his left hand; he would be admitted to hospital in Camiers before being evacuated to England on 2^nd October, travelling onboard the Hospital Ship Duchess Argyll. On arrival in England he would be admitted to Wharncliffe War Hospital in Sheffield.

Pte. Arthur Lindsay

L.Cpl. Frank Mallinson MM (see 2^nd September), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was presented with the Military Medal awarded to him for his conduct at the Battle of Messines on 7^th June 1917. The presentation was made by the Mayor of Huddersfield, in a ceremony at Crosland Moor United Methodist Sunday School.

A memorial service was held at Cowling Parish Church, remembering, among others, Pte. Albert Christopher Benson (see 27^th September), who had been killed on 11^th September. A similar service was held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Hellifield in memory of 2Lt. Harley Bentham (see 27^th September).

 

Pte. Albert Christopher Benson

 

2Lt. Harley Bentham