Friday 1st August 1919

Pte. Albert Drake (see 17^th October 1918), serving with 3DWR, was formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z. He was also awarded an Army pension on account of his ‘neurasthenia’ (shellshock); he was awarded 17s. 4d. per week for the first month, rising to£1 7s. 10d. thereafter.

Thursday 31st July 1919

Pte. Alfred Whittaker (see 28^th July), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, was admitted to 38^th Stationary Hospital at Arquata Scrivia (cause unknown).

A/L.Cpl. James Sugden (see 5^th June), serving in Fiume with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs., began to be paid according to his rank, having previously held the appointment unpaid.

Pte. John Oldfield Greenwood (see 7^th July 1918), serving in France with 9DWR, was attached for duty with 301 Prisoner of War Company.

Payment of a £4 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Pte. John Cardwell (see 3^rd February 1916) who had been killed in November 1915; the payment would go to his father, John.

Pte. John Cardwell (standing)

Image by kind permission of Gary Robinson

Payment of a £3 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Pte. William Hartley Emmott (see 26^th January 1916) who had been killed in September 1915; the payment would go to his widow, Ethel Eliza.

Payment of a £4 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Pte. George Herbert Redgwick (see 4^th December 1916), who had been killed in an accident in the trenches in November 1915; the payment would go to his mother, Clara.

Wednesday 30th July 1919

Pte. Charles Sidney Taylor (see 23^rd May), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, was appointed (unpaid) Lance Corporal.

L.Cpl. William Arthur Hutchinson (see 5^th January), who had had his left leg amputated as a result of wounds suffered on 29^th October 1918, was formally transferred to the Army Reserve as no longer physically fit for service on account of his wounds and also of having suffered malaria, contracted in service; he was assessed as having a 100% disability and was awarded an Army pension of £2 3s. 8d. per week, to be reviewed after one year.

Payment of a £4 10s. war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Pte. George Arthur France (see 17^th January 1916), who had died of wounds in November 1915; the payment would go to his mother, Emma.

Pte. George Arthur France

Tuesday 29th July 1919

Payment of a £5 10s. war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Pte. George William Elliott (see 5^th April 1916), who had been killed in action in January 1916; the payment would go to his widow, Emily.

Monday 28th July 1919

Pte. James Pidgeley (see 28^th June) was admitted to 7^th General Hospital in Boulogne; the reason for his admission is unknown.

Pte. Alfred Whittaker (see 11^th July), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, was reported as having been ‘drunk in his billet’; he was ordered to be deprived of five days’ pay.

A payment of £5 7s. 1d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. Fred Job (see 10^th January 1916) who had died of wounds in October 1915; the payment would go to his father, Francis.

Sunday 27th July 1919

Nothing to report regarding the officers and men of 10DWR.

Saturday 26th July 1919

Ptes. Benjamin Thomas Alcraft MM (see 16^th March), Percy Burrows (see 18^th October 1918), John Henry Evison (see 1^st September 1918), James Edward Haley (see 25^th March), Percival William Hall (see 3^rd May), John Henshall (see 17^th June), Harry Jackson (24186) (see 20^th January 1918), Willie Kershaw (see 1^st March), John Killerby (see 12^th June 1918), Daniel Mackenzie (see 8^th February), Herbert Newton (see 12^th June), Philip Pankhurst (see 26^th July 1918), Ben Pedder MM (see 16^th February),  Ernest Townsend (see 13^th April) and Frederick William Warner (see 5^th June) serving with 3DWR at North Shields, were transferred to 2DWR, based at Oswestry. 

Payment of a £3 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late L.Cpl. Noel Bennett who had been killed in November 1915 (see 29^th February 1916); the payment would go to his father, Walter.

L.Cpl. Noel Bennett

Friday 25th July 1919

Payment of a £3 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Pte. John Robinson (see 14^th April 1916), who had died of heart failure during training in Folkestone in April 1915; the payment would go to his father, George.

Pte. John Robinson

Thursday 24th July 1919

In the words of Pte. Harold Charnock (see 17^th March) “On the 24^th July the 10th Battalion, along with other Service Battalions of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, received a King’s Colour from the hands of General Belfield, the Colonel of the Regiment, at the Regimental Depot.  The Colours of the 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th and 13th Battalions were then taken to Halifax Parish Church where they were handed over to the vicar”.

Wednesday 23rd July 1919

Cpl. Martin Reddington (see 18^th February) and L.Cpl. Clarence Smith (see 3^rd June), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, both reverted to Private at their own request.

Pte. Joseph William Carter (see 19^th June), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, was reported as having been ‘absent from 7pm roll call until 9.15pm’; he was ordered to undergo five days’ Field Punishment no.2.

Pte. Fred Clayton (see 30^th June), who was on leave in England from 505^th Prisoner of War Company at San Bonifacio, failed to report on schedule at the embarkation office at Victoria Station on the expiry of his leave. He would not report until 11am on 31^st July and, having been posted back to Italy, would be ordered to be forfeit eight days’ pay and to undergo seven days’ Field Punishment no.2.

Pte. Mark Henry Sutcliffe (see 21^st April) was formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.

Pte. Henry Charles Lindsay (see 10^th January), serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was formally discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service on account of wounds; he was assessed as having a 40% disability and was awarded an Army pension of 11s. per week, to be reviewed after one year.

Payment of a £7 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Sgt.Charles McCusker (see 13^th October 1918), who had been killed in an accident at the Brigade bomb school in November 1915; the payment would go to his widow, Lilian.

Sgt. Charles McCusker

Tuesday 22nd July 1919

Pte. Ambrose Birdsall (see 16^th August 1917), serving in France with 2/4^th DWR, was posted to England for demobilization.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. John Robert Camm (see 6^th February 1918), who had been killed in action in September 1917; his mother, Eliza, was awarded 5s. per week, backdated to 6^th November 1918.

Lt. Ronald Ferguson (see 6^th April) compiled and published a list of the names and current addresses of more than officers who had served with 10DWR during the war.

Images by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Monday 21st July 1919

2Lt. Archibald (Archie) Allen (see 4^th March), who been released from the Army having been wounded in June 1918, appeared before a further Army Medical Board assembled in Birmingham. The Board found that he “remains in the same condition. There is still marked limitation of movement of left shoulder joint owing to the large scar adherent to ribs on left side of chest which, running across chest from axilla, prevents the arm being raised more than a right angle”.

Payment of a £3 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late L. Cpl. Raymond Douglas Tilbrook (see 5^th September 1916), who had been killed in action in September 1915; the payment would go to his widow, Sarah.

Robert E. Mercer, serving in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, wrote to the War Office; he was the son of Maj. Stephen Minchin Mercer, ASC (see 27^th June), who had died a month previously. “I have had a communication from Capt. J.F. Cutler, commanding RASC, Leeds, informing me of my father’s death and advising me to write to you with reference to his effects. Would you kindly advise me what effects etc. are in the possession of the War Office belonging to my father and what methods I would have to adopt to obtain same”.

Sunday 20th July 1919

Pte. Harry Beaumont (29306) (see 10^th March), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, was admitted to hospital (details unknown).

After consideration of the case, at Rollestone Camp, of Cpl. Arthur Lee MM (see 14^th June), who had been reported as ‘absent without leave’ having failed to return from leave to England from 8^th Yorks. and Lancs., it was determined that ‘Owing to lack of sufficient evidence to bring the case forward for trial by District Court Martial’, the case against Cpl. Lee should be dismissed. Six days later Cpl. Lee would be formally transferred to 1^st Battalion Yorks. and Lancs., to whom he had reported five weeks previously.

Saturday 19th July 1919

The father of the late Capt. Bob Perks DSO (see 12^th June), who had been killed in action in October 1918, wrote to the War Office regarding a deduction which had been made from the amount payable on his late son’s account in respect of a cheque: “Can you give me the date and number of the cheque for £4 9s. 7d. which was returned marked ‘drawer deceased’? My son’s cheque book was returned to me; originally contained 12 cheques. 8 of these were unused. All other 4 were debited by Messrs. Cox & Co. to his account and there is no counterfoil of a cheque for £4 9s. 7d. at all”. He would receive a copy of the cheque and confirmation that the amount represented the current rate of exchange value of the original sum of 150 lire.

Capt. Bob Perks DSO

Image by kind permission of Janet Hudson

Friday 18th July 1919

Sgt. Joseph Patrick Melvin (see 5^th February), serving in France with 2^nd/4^th DWR, was accepted as a volunteer to serve in the Armies of Occupation.

Instructions were issued from the War Office that Pte. Reginald Dayson (see 3^rd April), who was a prisoner at Portland Prison, Dorset, was to be discharged from the Army under King’s Regulations 392, xii, ‘having been sentenced to penal servitude’.

Acting Maj. Charles Bathurst MC (see 1^st March 1918) formally resigned his commission.

Thursday 17th July 1919

Pte. Martin Williams (see 10^th July 1916) was formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z; he had been an original member of 10DWR but had been transferred (date and details unknown) to 2DWR. 

A pension award was made in the case of the late Sgt. Herbert Veal (see 2^nd May 1917) who had died of wounds following the German shelling of the Battalion billets in Ypres in January 1917; his father, Albert, was awarded 5s. per week, backdated to 6^th November 1918.

Wednesday 16th July 1919

Cpl. Harry Wood MM (see 20^th May) was discharged from the Royal Infirmary in Manchester; he would have ten days’ leave before reporting to Nell Lane Military Hospital, West Didsbury, Manchester. A report on admission noted that, ‘Large wound on posterior aspect of scapula; small weep discharging; been in same condition for three months; no bare bone felt’. Following an X-ray it would be further noted that, ‘Probe in sinus (about 2” long) leads to cavity in bone; sequestra (bone fragments) present’.

Payment of a £3 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Pte. Isaac Beardsley (see 10^th February 1916), who had been killed in action in October 1915; the payment would go to his sister, Florence.

Tuesday 15th July 1919

Pte. James Austin (see 7^th February), serving with 1034 Employment Company at Arquata Scrivia, was taken on to the strength of the Permanent Train Staff at no.9 Rest Camp, also at Arquata Scrivia.

Maj. Robert Harwar Gill DSO (see 5^th June), who hed been under treatment at 3^rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth for the wounds he had suffered in October 1918, was granted a further one month’s leave, on the expiry of which he was to return to hospital.

Maj. Robert Harwar Gill DSO

A report submitted by 21^st Labour Company confirmed the exhumation and reburial of the remains of a number of men. Among them were those of 2Lt. Isidore David Marks (see 21^st October 1916), L.Cpl. James Kettlewell (see 25^th January 1917) and Pte. Myer Freedman MM (see 26^th April 1917) who had been killed near Contalmaison in 1916. Their remains had been interred in marked graves, “End of trench, just S. of Contalmaison, 3 ¾ miles E.N.E. of Albert, Map. Ref. Sheet 57d. Square X, 16.d.6.0.”. All three, along with others, had now been exhumed and re-interred at Gordon Dump Cemetery near Pozieres.

Lt. Isidore David Marks

L.Cpl. James Kettlewell

Monday 14th July 1919

Sgt. Thomas Flaxington (see 24^th June 1917), who had been serving with the Labour Corps, was formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.

Sunday 13th July 1919

It was reported that Lt. Eric Dixon (see 1^st July), serving with the RAF, had not in fact reported to 11 Training Squadron, based at Old Sarum, having been posted there 12 days previously.

Lt. Eric Dixon

Image by kind permission of the Trustees of the DWR Museum

Saturday 12th July 1919

The War Office wrote to Thomas Whitaker, father of the late 2Lt. Samuel Whitaker (see 25^th June) who had died from ‘influenza and broncho-pneumonia’ shortly after returning home from Italy in February, requesting further detail as to when he had been attended by his doctor; there was some doubt as to the entitlement to an Army pension. Thomas Whitaker would reply within a few days, having secured a written statement from Dr. H. Stewart Brander: “I was called to see the late 2Lt. Samuel Whitaker on Wednesday morning, February 19^th. I found him seriously ill, suffering from a severe attack of influenza with right-sided septic pneumonia. On February 22^nd both lungs showed extensive pneumonia due to streptococcal infection from which he died on 26^th February. When I first visited Lt. Whitaker on 19^th February he informed me that he felt distinctly ‘out of sorts’ when he was at Clipstone and during the railway journey from Clipstone to Keighley on February 17^th he felt distinctly ill and had to go to bed two hours after his arrival home. I have no hesitation in saying that Lt. Whitaker died from double pneumonia complicating influenza contracted on active service”. Mr. Whitaker added that, “I shall be glad to hear that the question of the pension to the widow, the rank service gratuity and the remission of the 30s. state death duty have been further considered”.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Harry Bradshaw (see 12^th January 1918), who had been killed in action in September 1917; his father, Harry, was awarded 5s. per week.

A payment of £1 16s. 3d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances to the late Pte. George Edward Milner (see 28^th November 1918), who had been officially missing in action since November 1917; the payment would go to his married sister, Clara Clapham.

Friday 11th July 1919

Pte. George William Ball (see 27^th June), who was on home leave while serving at Arquata Scrivia with the Military Foot Police, failed to report on schedule on the expiry of his leave; he would report himself five days’ later and would be sent back to Italy, under escort, from Southampton on 19^th July.

Pte. Alfred Whittaker (see 3^rd June), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, was admitted to 38^th Stationary Hospital at Arquata Scrivia, suffering from tonsillitis; he would be discharged and return to duty after five days.

Pte. Arthur Walton (see 14^th January), serving with 3DWR, was formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.

A payment of £30 16s. 11d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances (including a war gratuity of unknown amount) to the late Pte. Ellis Sutcliffe (see 4^th January), who had been taken prisoner in March while serving with 2^nd/5^th DWR and had died in August 1918. The payment would be divided in four equal shares to his mother, Elizabeth, and sisters Annie, Elsie and Emily.

Thursday 10th July 1919

Pte. James William Kershaw MM (12519; 60065) (see 28^th February), who had re-enlisted to continue serving, was married, in Halifax, to Jane Elizabeth Pattinson, who was pregnant with their first child. She was the widow of Pte. John Pattinson, who had been killed in action on 27^th September 1915 while serving with 10^th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry; she had four surviving children by her first marriage and a fifth child had died July 1917.

Pte. Norman Greenwood (17998) (see 11th April), who had been transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z in February, was awarded an Army pension on the grounds of his having been wounded whilst in service and also having contracted chronic bronchitis; he was assessed as having a 30% disability and was awarded 8s. 3d. per week, to be reviewed after one year.

Wednesday 9th July 1919

Pte. Ernest Ashness (see 3^rd June), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, was reported as having been drunk on duty; he would be ordered to undergo 14 days’ Field Punishment no.2.

Pte. Robert Ellis Clayton (see 21^st May), serving at Ripon with the Labour Corps, was reported absent without leave.

CSM Harry Dewhirst (see 10^th July 1918), formerly of 10DWR, serving with 42 Agricultural Depot at Halam formally confirmed that, “I surrender my claim to early demobilization and express my desire to continue serving under the same conditions as soldiers retained for service with the Army of Occupation, provided it is agreed that I shall not in any case be so retained after the 31^st of December 1919 unless I give my written consent to such further retention”.

CSM Harry Dewhirst (back left)

Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton

Trooper Claude Darwin (see 27^th March), who had been on leave in England after serving in Egypt with 1^st Field Squadron, Engineers, Anzac Mounted Division, embarked onboard the Prince Ludwig to return to Australia. He was the brother of Tunstill recruit, Pte. Tom Darwin (see 21^st January 1918), who had been discharged from the army.

Payment of a £3 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late Pte. Frederick Ford (see 4^th November 1915), who had been killed in action in November 1915; the payment would go to his mother, Elizabeth.

Payment of a £4 war gratuity was authorised in respect of the late L.Cpl. Samuel Holroyd (see 1^st March 1916), who had been killed when a dugout had collapsed in November 1915; the payment would go to widow, Maria.

Ernest Webb, brother of Pte. Edward Percy Webb MM (see 22^nd April), who had been missing in action since the trench raid on 26^th August 1918, wrote to the Infantry Records Office in York, “I have just now heard from the War Office that they are now issuing an official notification that my brother is to be concluded as having died on 26^th August last and that your office will issue the notification to his next of kin. I shall be greatly obliged if all such notice, papers and effects could be sent to me and I will undertake to obtain my mother’s signature to any forms that may require it. Failing this, would you be good enough to note that in his paybook his will made everything over to my father who died in March last and therefore I do not wish my mother to receive any papers addressed to my father”. Official notification of the presumption of death for Pte. Webb would indeed be issued on 1^st August.

Tuesday 8th July 1919

Capt. Gilbert Tunstill (see 23^rd March), serving with 3DWR, completed and signed his Protection Certificate, preparatory to his being released from the Army; he completed the paperwork at the Prees Heath Dispersal Centre.

Monday 7th July 1919

Pte. John Chadwick Taylor (see 13^th April), serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, was admitted to hospital (cause unknown); he would be discharged and return to duty after six days.


A pension award was made in the case of the late L.Cpl William Rawnsley, MM (see 21^st March 1917) who had died of wounds in November 1916; his father, Kendal, was awarded 7s. per week, backdated to 25^th January.

Thursday 6th July 1919

A/Sgt. Fred Greenwood MM (24522) (see 30^th May), who was on attachment to 505^th Prisoner of War Company at San Bonifacio, departed for England on two weeks’ leave.

Pte. William Herbert Websdale (see 30^th March), serving in Fiume with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs., was posted back to England for demobilization.

Pte. Fred Sutcliffe (see 14^th February), serving with 3DWR at Pembroke Dock, was reported as having been ‘absent off special leave; he was admonished, but suffered no further punishment.

Sgt. Bert Lockwood was formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z. 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 military service beyond the fact that he had originally served with 9DWR, first going out to France with his Battalion in July 1915, before being transferred (date and circumstances unknown) to 10DWR.

Saturday 5th July 1919

Nothing to report regarding the men of 10DWR.

Friday 4th July 1919

Nothing to report for 10DWR.

Thursday 3rd July 1919

Pte. John Whitham (see 20^th March), who had returned to England after serving in India with 1^st Garrison Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, was formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.


A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Bramwell Thompson (see 27^th October 1918), who had been officially reported ‘missing in action’ in action in October 1918; his mother, Sarah, was awarded 8s. per week.

Wednesday 2nd July 1919

While serving with the Irish Guards at Caterham, Surrey Pte. Michael Cooney MM (see 19^th September 1918) (it is not known when, or under what circumstances he had been transferred from 10DWR) was tried by Field General Court Martial on a charge of desertion; he was found guilty and was sentenced to 28 days detention.

A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. Oliver Stancliffe (see 4^th May 1917) who had been killed in the German shelling of Ypres in January 1917; his father, Charles, was awarded 5s. per week, backdated to 6^th November 1918.