Wednesday 31st January 1919

Billets at Arzignano

For 69^th Brigade as a whole the month had seen demobilization accelerating. In total, 10 Officers and 622 other ranks had been demobilized and a further 17 Officers and 404 other ranks had been struck off strength whilst on leave in England.

It was also noted at Brigade level that, “In spite of the difficulties caused by the demobilization of officers and other ranks acting as instructors, the Educational Scheme progressed very well. Units had classes each morning”.

Pte. Harry Leaper (see 11^th August 1918) was appointed Lance Corporal.

Lt. William George Wade (see 17^th June 1918), Sgt. Harry Holmes MM (see 15th October 1918) and Ptes. Harold Clifford Ashbrook (see 1^st January 1918), Robert Baldwin (see 10^th June 1918) and John Hargreaves (18009) (see 29^th May 1918) departed for England on two weeks’ leave, on completion of which they were to be demobilized.

Pte. John William Antill (see 5^th July 1917), who had failed to report for a return to Italy following a period of leave in England (details unknown), was handed over by the civil authorities in Chesterfield to the military authorities. In the absence of a more complete service record, it is unclear what further action was taken. 

Sgts. Josias Bailey MM (see 17^th January) and Harold Best MM (see 24^th January), L.Cpl. John Lamb Watt (see 17^th January, and Ptes. Vernon Barker (see 17^th January), Lewis Batey MM (see 18^th December 1918), Samuel Lawton Birtles (see 17^th January), Thomas Butler (see 17^th January), Edward Henry Chant (see 17^th January), Josiah Charles (see 17^th January), Thomas Eccleston (see 5^th October 1917), Moses Henry Jaeger (see 17^th January), Reginald James Nosworthy (see 17^th January) and Sam Shuttleworth (see 17^th January) who were in England on leave, were all struck off the strength of 10DWR. Ptes. Butler, Chant and Nosworthy were posted to 3DWR at North Shields, but the remainder were demobilized; Best from Ripon; Batey from Purfleet; Watt from the dispersal centre at Kinross; Barker from Clipstone; Birtles from Prees Heath, Shropshire, and Eccleston from Heaton Park.

Lt. John Robert Dickinson (see 4^th January) re-joined 3DWR at North Shields, having completed a one-month course in tactics and topography at no.1 Infantry Officer’s School. He was reported as having been, “A smart, keen and intelligent officer who has worked well and shown marked interest” and was considered fit to command a platoon.

Pte. Frederick Abbot (see 27^th November 1918) was transferred from hospital in Exeter to the Military Convalescent Hospital at Crownhill, Plymouth.

Lt. Andrew Aaron Jackson (see 18^th January), who had suffered wounds to his right shoulder during the trench raid on 26^th August 1918, and was still under treatment at at Lady Cooper’s Hospital, Hursley Park, Winchester, wrote, for a second time, to the War Office to make his application for a wound gratuity.

Lt. John Keighley Snowden (see 28^th November 1918), who had left 10DWR after being wounded in October 1916, formally relinquished his commission on completion of his service, giving his address as 24 Auriol Road, West Kensington.

Ptes. Walter Evans (see 2^nd January) and John Henry Fidler (see 2^nd January) were formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.

Spr. Bedford Kilner was formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z. He was from Cumberworth and had been an original member of 10DWR, having enlisted aged 20. However, he had subsequently been transferred to the Royal Engineers; in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to establish any further details of his military career.

A ‘concert and dance’ were held in Giggleswick to welcome repatriated prisoners, including Pte. Robert Cresswell (see 30^th January). The event would subsequently be reported in the Craven Herald (7^th February). “To welcome home the repatriated prisoners of war of Giggleswick a concert and dance were held on Friday evening last for adults, and a tea party on Saturday to which the children and the old folks of the village were invited. Mr. A. Barran, J.P., of Holly Bank, presided on Friday and Lieut. Col. Birkbeck of Careholme, made a presentation to each of the four prisoners of war – Private J. Walsh, Private R. Cresswell, Private R. Silverwood and Private F. Threlfall – of a salver engraved with a suitable inscription. The Chairman thanked the villagers for their evident sense of gratitude and hearty welcome home. The concert was exceptionally good; the artistes being: Mrs. Francis, Miss Jean Bell, Miss H. Leaworthy, Miss Graham, Mr. T. Butler, Mr. H. Edmondson and Lieut. H.L. Hopkins. Mr. S.H. Francis officially accompanied. Messrs. A. Graham, A. Horner and B. Patterson played for dancing, there being a crowded attendance”.

The weekly edition of the Craven Herald carried an extended account of his period in captivity by Sgt. Harry Singleton (see 30^th December 1918); he was the brother of Robert Singleton (see 30^th December 1918).

Bolton-By-Bowland

MANY EXAMPLES OF GERMAN ‘KULTUR’

Many of our soldiers have been discharged, amongst whom are Riley Blezard, Tom Bleazard, Harry Geldard, John Life, Irvine Clark and Fred Robinson. The three prisoners of war, Serg. Singleton, Ptes. W. Moon and A. Harrison are also safely back. 

Sergt. Singleton, R.A.M.C., who has been released as a prisoner of war in Germany say: “I was captured on 5^th April 1918, in a trench between the villages of Bulquoy and Gommecourt. We had made an attack on the German trench system in front of us and had taken three lines of trenches and several hundred prisoners. Finding we were not strong enough to hold the position our boys had to retire, and during the retirement we were cut off in a short trench and soon found ‘Jerry’ on each side of us. We held them at bay for some hours until our stock of bombs ran out and they rushed us. We were marched to Bapaume that night and were billeted in what used to be the Drury Lane Theatre in that place. Here we were kept three days without food and were marched off every day to unload our enemy’s ammunition at the railway station. We also worked at an engineer’s camp, carrying sleepers for a light railway. We did not stay long at Bapaume but but were moved further on to Marquion and then to Demain, where we stayed another week in a camp, and were fed on mangold soup every day, and a very severe epidemic of dysentery set in, over 50 of our boys dying in a week. After a week of this I managed to get moved to a Veterinary Hospital where I had a good job looking after the sick of my company. The food here was very bad also and we lived for months on a very small quantity of black bread and imitation coffee, while our mid-day meal consisted of various soups. Sometimes it was ‘sauerkraut’ and at others, ‘sandstorm’, which was ground up mangolds and swedes, and it made a mixture something like sawdust and water in appearance. As the summer advanced we got fresh cabbage in the soup; more water than cabbage though. We used to get plenty of horse’s liver and lights whenever a horse died in hospital, but they always kept them too long and they were generally in a high state when we got them in soup. I got fed up with this and determined to escape, which I did on June 9^th, being retaken on June 15^th and brought back. Shortly afterwards I had a spell in hospital and had only just got out again when we were sent back to Germany, where I arrived on September 8^th. Things began to improve when I got settled, as we got some British food from the British Help Committee in Friedrichsfeld, and then we had the Armistice on us and all was excitement. We stayed behind with the sick until a hospital train arrived on December 21^st. We then collected from Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Wanne, Munster and Wesel. We finally crossed into Holland at 9am on Christmas Day. We crossed on the S.S. Accrington to Hull and arrived Ripon on December 30^th, very glad indeed to get back to dear old Blighty once again”.