Saturday 14th December 1918

Billets at Arzignano

A Brigade Sports Meeting was held at no.5 Training Ground at Arzignano. Capt. Dick Bolton MC (see 11^th December) was on the organizing committee; Maj. William Norman Town (see 22^nd November)  was among the official starters; and A/RSM Fred Pattison DCM (see 23rd November; Pattison’s acting rank would suggest that RSM Charles Edward Parker, DCM, MM, see 27^th October, was on leave, but this cannot be confirmed for certain) was one of the clerks of the course.

The Battalion competed against 11^th West Yorkshires in the tug o’ war, with the winners to compete against 8^th Yorkshires. There were also representatives in the individual running events: 2Lt. George Clifford Sugden (see 2nd October) and David Twigg (see 1^st December) in the 100 yards; L.Cpl. Wilfred Henry Fiddes (see 9^th December), and Ptes. Gahagan (I am unable to make a positive identification of this man), Tim Helliwell (see 1^st December) and Twigg in the quarter mile; Sgt. Harry Smith (12240) (see 11^th August) and L.Cpl. Irvin Ward (see below) in the half mile; and Sgt. Smith and L.Cpl. Harold Bray (18231) (see 9^th June) in the mile. The Battalion also competed in the relay events. At the end of the day the prizes were awarded by Brig. Genl. Archibald Bentley Beauman DSO (see 18^th November), commanding 69^th Brigade, but unfortunately the results were not recorded in the Brigade War Diary, although it was recorded that the Brigade champions were 11^th West Yorks.

Irvin Ward was a 24 year-old woollen spinner from Denby; he had previously served with 1^st/7^th DWR, but, in the absence of a surviving service record, I am unable to establish when, or under what circumstances, he had joined 10DWR.

Pte. Arthur Wideman (see 24^th January), serving in France with 2DWR, departed for England on two weeks’ leave.

Pte. James Kilburn (see 5^th December), who had been ordered to undergo 23 days’ detention having been absent without leave 3DWR at North Shields, was transferred to the Detention Barracks in York to serve the final 15 days of his sentence.

A number of men who had previously served with 10DWR but had been transferred to either the Army Reserve Class P or W, to resume their civil employment, were formally discharged from the Army. Those known to have been so discharged were Sgts. Sam Beveridge (see 13th October 1915) (his subsequent application for an army pension would be rejected) and John Thomas Matthews (see 28^th February), Cpl. John William Cooper (see 13^th November 1917) and Ptes. John Broadbent (see 9^th February), Joseph Chandler (see 1^st November), Robert Sylvester Downey (see 31^st May), John Thomas Elford (see 27^th August 1917), William Franklin (see 14^th September), George Hirst (see 21^st March 1917), Samuel Hodgetts (in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or to establish any details of his service with 10DWR), Cyril Hollingsworth (see 30^th November), Albert Moore (see 28^th November), John Dennis Moss (see 1^st July), James Pickering (see 24^th October 1917), Ambrose Scalley (see below), Walter Shackleton (see 2^nd May 1915), Michael Thornton (he had been an original member of the Battalion, but in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or to establish any details of his service with 10DWR) and William Henry Yarnold (see 21^st June 1915). 

Sgt. Matthews and Ptes. Broadbent, Chandler, Hollingsworth, Moore, Moss, Scalley, Shackleton and Yarnold were all awarded army pensions on account of their injuries or illness. Pte. Moore, assessed as having a 100% disability due to TB, was awarded 40s. per week.

Ambrose Scalley had enlisted, aged 18, in December 1915 while working as a tenter for a fabric printer in Birstall. He had served with 10DWR before being transferred to 2^nd/7^th DWR and, at some point, had suffered a wound to his right foot. In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to establish any details of his service with 10DWR or the date and circumstances of his having been wounded.