Tuesday, 12th January 1915

Tunstill's Company remained in training at Aldershot.

Monday, 11th January 1915

The eight Earby men who had been posted to serve with Tunstill’s Company were entertained at the local Conservative Club whilst home on leave (see 7^th January). The event was reported in the Craven Herald:

EARBY

Kitchener’s Men Feted

On Monday evening eight of the Earby Pals who have been home on furlough from Aldershot were entertained to supper at the Conservative Club, of which they were all members prior to enlistment. Their names are: Ptes James Pilkington, Reginald Watson, Willie Gaunt, Edgar Shuttleworth, Wright Firth, Thomas Tuley, Allan Wharton and James Walker. The supper was provided by the Misses Holgate, confectioners, Water Street, to whose catering the highest compliments were paid. The company, of whom about 60 were present, afterwards adjourned upstairs to the Albion Hall where the “fleeting hours” sped in a most convivial manner under the genial chairmanship of Mr. Walter Willis. Music, both vocal and instrumental, was interspersed with speeches. Patriotic fervour was the order of the evening which was brought to a close at about 3.30 am, by the singing of “Auld Lang Syne”. The toast of the evening, wishing the Pals, “Good health, God speed and a safe return” was submitted by Mr. C. Francis, supported by Mr. W. Watson and responded to by Ptes. Gaunt, Firth and Shuttleworth. Songs, chiefly of a patriotic flavour, were contributed by Mr. Herbert Lord, Messrs. J.W. Blackburn, P. Wormwell and Ptes. E. Shuttleworth and R. Watson; cornet solos by Mr. Edwin Firth and Mr. Squire Firth and recitations by Mr. Willie Watson.

Leonard Fox was released from hospital following his treatment for scabies (see 2^nd January).

 

Sunday, 10th January 1915

Tunstill's Company remained in training at Aldershot.

Saturday, 9th January 1915

Tunstill's Company remained in training at Aldershot.

Friday, 8th January 1915

Second Lieutenant Frederick Hird (see 9^th December) was posted to serve with 10^th Battalion; he would become one of the officers serving with Tunstill’s Company.

Horace Dunn was released from hospital following his treatment for scabies (see 2^nd January).


Following the recent concerns about his fitness for appointment to a commission, Robert Clement (Bob) Perks (see 30^th December) underwent a second army medical examination. The result, in the words of a telegram to his family, was that he, “Passed Doctor easily”.

(I am greatly indebted to Janet Hudson for her kind permission to quote from Bob Perks’ correspondence).

Bob Perks, left, with his older brother, Martin Thomas Perks, during their time at Oxford

Image by kind permission of Janet Hudson

Monday, 25th January 1915

Tunstill’s Men, along with the whole Battalion moved to the Eversley area for three weeks’ battalion training. The move clearly provoked a degree of apprehension and unrest, as reported in a letter home by Priestley:

“I am told that Eversley is a very desolate spot and, as the work is very hard, we look like ‘going through it’ …  The whole battalion has come this time and we are living all over the place. Finchampstead and Cressley are adjoining hamlets, one can barely call them villages for there are houses merely scattered here and there, and only a couple of shops for both places. We are living as we can; some in stables and haylofts, barns, coach houses etc, some in a school, and others, including myself, in empty houses. But we are not all together, as at Camberley, but scattered all over the place. God knows how we are going to get anything to eat! They gave us breakfast this morning in barracks, then we walked the 12 to 14 miles here”.

Jonathan Kendall Smith, who had signed up in Ilkley and joined Tunstill’s Company along with the other Ilkley volunteers, died at Connaught Hospital from pneumonia. He was the fourth member of the Company to die in training. He was 26 years old and before enlisting had worked as a farm servant for a number of families in the Ilkley area. He was one of six children of Jonathan and Emma Smith who had farmed land near Askwith; after his father’s death, his mother had kept up the family farm.

Robert Singleton, who had been examined on 20^th January, was formally discharged from the Army on account of his having flat feet, which left him unfit to march any distance. However, Robert Singleton would subsequently re-join the Army. Although the details of his subsequent service have not been established, he is known to have been on active service in Greece in November 1916, from where he wrote a letter home which was subsequently reported in the Craven Herald.

Pte. Arthur Walton (see 30^th December 1914) was reported by Sgt. Henry Carrodus (I am, as yet, unable to make a positive identification of this man) and Pte. Owen (unidentified) as having been ‘drunk in town about 9pm’; on the orders of Col. George Rainier Crawford (see 22^nd January), he would be confined to barracks for 14 days.

Pte. Charles McDermott was reported by A/QMS George Edmond Fricker (see 18^th September 1914) and RSM Thomas Broadley (see 23^rd September 1914) as having been ‘drunk in billets about 9pm and using obscene language’; on the orders of Col. George Rainier Crawford (see 22^nd January), he would be confined to barracks for 21 days. Pte. McDermott was a 33 year-old stuff presser from Bradford; he was married, with two children.

Sunday, 24th January 1915

Robert Newhouse (see 17^th September 1914), one of Tunstill’s original recruits, was admitted to Connaught Hospital, to be treated for deafness.