Sunday 16th February 1919

Billets at Arzignano

Orders were received that the Battalion was to provide a total of two officers and 59 other ranks who were to be transferred to 8^th Yorks. and Lancs., which Battalion, since November 1918, had been based at Fiume (now known as Rijeka), as part of the Allied Army of Occupation in previously Austrian-held territory. The Brigade was to supply seven officers and 710 men in total. The men were to be either volunteers or ‘those not eligible for demobilization’. A few days previously the Battalion had submitted a return, confirming that there were 143 men not eligible for demobilization. A list of names was required by 69^th Brigade HQ by 5pm on 17^th. The draft was to include two Sergeants, seven Corporals or Lance Corporals and five ‘waiting men’.

L.Sgt. George Heeley (see 18^th December 1918), L.Cpl. John Henderson (see 24^th January) and Ptes. Thomas Bates (see 24^th August 1918), Robert Fiedler (see 18^th August 1918), Robert Jackson (see 17^th November 1918), John William Pennells (see 14^th July 1918), Samuel Richards (see 8^th November 1918) and Alfred Shaw (see 24^th November 1918) completed and signed their ‘Statement as to disability’ forms, which were a precursor to their being posted back to England. The completed forms, which confirmed that they did not claim to have suffered any disability in service, were witnessed, for Heeley and Henderson by 2Lt. Wilfred Frederick John Thomson MC (see 15^th February) and for Bates, Fiedler, Jackson, Pennells and Richards, by 2Lt. Albert Joseph Acarnley MC (see 12^th January).

Sgt. Christopher Clapham MM (see 8^th February), L.Sgt. Albert Reynolds (see 8^th February), Cpl. Mark Butler (see 8^th February) and Ptes. Joseph Dent (see 8^th February),  Harry Horner (see 20^th December 1918), Joseph Livesey (see 8^th February), James Longworth (see 18^th September 1918), James Edward Parkinson (see 8^th February), William Ward Pickles (see 8^th February), John Wright Pollard (see 8^th February), Arthur Simpson (201538) (see 8^th February) and David Twigg (see 8^th February) were posted back to England for demobilization; Clapham, Butler, Dent, Horner, Longworth, Pickles, Pollard and Simpson would be demobilized from Ripon; and Livesey and Parkinson from Prees Heath.

Pte. John Beckwith (see 23rd August 1918), serving in Italy with 9^th Battalion South Staffs., was posted back to England to the Regimental Depot in Lichfield.

Pte. Ben Pedder MM (see 24^th January), who was on leave in England, was transferred, initially to 3DWR at North Shields, and ten days later to the Regimental Depot at Halifax.

Pte. Harry Earnshaw (see 12^th December 1918), who had been in England for two months having been a prisoner of war in Germany since October 1917, was posted to 3DWR at North Shields. 

Ptes. Walter James Biddle (see 17^th January), Wilfred Cutts (see below), Harold Draper (see 4^th January), Henry Smith (13362), James Stott (see 2^nd January), Joseph Sutcliffe (see below) and Harry (Thomas Henry) Walton (see 26^th August 1918) were officially transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z. 

In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of Wilfred Cutts or establish any details of his service. Henry Smith had been an original member of 10DWR, but in the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or establish any details of his service. Joseph Sutcliffe had originally served with 8DWR, going to Gallipoli with the Battalion in September 1915. In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man or to identify when, and under what circumstances, he had been transferred to 10DWR.


L.Cpl. James Barker (12288) (see 10^th January), who had been serving with 2^nd Reserve Battalion Machine Gun Corps, based at Belton Park, Grantham, was officially transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z. Having had the little finger of his left hand amputated as a result of wouds he was assessed as having suffered a 20% disability and was awarded a one-off gratuity payment of £35.

Cpl. Fred Hopkinson (see 19^th January 1917), serving with the Army Ordnance Corps, was officially transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.

Ptes. Clement Ambler Broadbent (see below), Patrick Conley (see 8^th October 1918) and Thomas Hart (see 24^th June 1917), serving with the Labour Corps, were also officially transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.    

Clement Ambler Broadbent was 26 years old and from Halifax where he had worked as a labourer before joining the army. He had been an original member of 10DWR, but in the absence of a surviving service record I am unble to establish any details of his service, or when, or under what circumstances, he had been transferred to the Labour Corps.