Friday 6th December 1918

Billets at Arzignano

Pte. Arthur Thomas Wilford (see 22nd November) re-joined the Battalion from 71^st Field Ambulance.

Cpl. Mark Butler (see 20^th November), L.Cpl. James Allen (see 16^th January) and Ptes. Arthur Clark (25164) (see 5^th July 1917) and Arthur James Miles (see 29^th October 1917) departed on two weeks’ leave to England.

The case of Pte. James Moran (see 16^th July) was considered in the Divorce Court. The conduct of the case was reported at some length,

‘Pte. James Moran, Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, who is at present undergoing imprisonment at Pentonville for the manslaughter of the man whom he accused of misconduct with his wife, petitioned for a dissolution of his marriage. In his evidence the petitioner stated that he married the respondent in 1903 at Brighouse and there were five children of the marriage. He lived on affectionate terms with his wife. In September 1914 he joined the Army. In March last he returned to England having been twice wounded. On June 8^th a corporal and he went to North Shields to bring in a deserter, and it was arranged that the petitioner should pay a visit to his wife at Brighouse on the way. He arrived at Brighouse at 2am and found the house locked up. He knocked three times before he could get a reply and when his wife opened the bedroom window and saw him she said, “Oh dear!”. She did not admit him until he had knocked again and waited another 10 or 15 minutes. She came down in her night-dress. Going upstairs he found Birkhead under the bed in the children’s bedroom. Birkhead had no stockings on. The upshot of the matter was that hit Birkhead in the neck with his bayonet and for that he had been imprisoned. When he asked his wife about it she said she had been driven to it. She said that Birkhead had been coming to the house at week-ends for the six months previous.

James Moran, a boy of 13, the son of the petitioner, gave evidence as to Birkhead’s presence in the house. The deposition of Susannah Moran at the inquest on Birkhead was read by Mr. T. Blacknill, the petitioner’s counsel. She stated in that that she was asleep when her husband came home and she was not expecting him. Birkhead had been in her room. He had called nearly every week-end for the last six months. A decree nisi was granted by Mr. Justice Coleridge with custody of the children who, till petitioner’s release from prison, will remain in the Leeds home.