Personal Diary: September 4th 1916

Went round the trenches with De Lisle, he was quite pleasant. Started 6am got back at 10.30Am. Bayley dined and slept. Wind still unfavourable to get rid of our gas. A little rain in the afternoon.

Personal Diary:28th August 1916

The Corps and Divn commanders went round our trenches at 6am. Going (SWB) had to meet them and take them round. I was left behind to meet the army commander who turned up at 8.30am. Hunter-Weston & De Lisle both expressed themselves satisfied with the work we had done in the trenches. I got up at 5.30am and met Morris (Borders) on the canal bank at 6am, I went round their bank and the canal defences. The Army Commander (Plumer) turned up shortly after 9am and talked for about half an hour. He was very pleasant. 

Got a wire about 8pm  to say Roumania had come in. COs conference at 4.30pm to discuss work, reliefs etc. Completed carrying gas up after dark, it took all our spare men, we now have 200 cylinders in place.

Personal Diary Entry: August 24th 1916

Started round with De Lisle at 6am and got back at midday. He was in a good temper. He distributed tasks but evaded all the difficulties by turning everyone on to dig a new drain behind the firing line. This isn't much help when the parapet is blown down and wants immediate repairs.

Personal Diary entry: August 23rd 1916

Went round the trenches 5am with Going and Raikes. Conference of COs at 10am. De Lisle came in just before we started and said no work had been done in the line, & that he would come round tomorrow and allot tasks to companies. Bayley dined and slept.

Personal Diary Entry: August 21st 1916

Went round the trenches with Welch starting 5am. The recent rain had not had much effect . Met De Lisle on the way back. A deserter reported a few days ago that the Germans had still got a lot of gas cylinders in their trenches so this afternoon we knocked their trenches about for 2 hours with shells of all sizes up to 9”. They damaged ours a bit in return. We had 5 killed and 2 wounded. Bayley lunched, dined and spent the night.

War Dairy Entry: August 12th 1916

I was going with Welch to look at the 2^nd Army school behind St Omer, but had to stop behind to attend the breaking up day of our Divn school. Corps & Divn commanders present. After the inspection was over De Lisle had a conference at our hd qrs. At 3pm the Corps Commander turned up to inspect our camps. He spent 3 hours over it, never stopped talking, and after it was over asked me to make a précis of all he had said and send it on to him.

War Diary Entry: August 7th 1916

Went around the right sub-sector with De Lisle starting at 5am. We crawled over the open to look at Mill Cot, Nickalls was with us. A big trench mortar is being dug in there. So as to give the whole show away he then insisted on the 3 of us sitting on the old windmill mound close by, with an open map between us for ten minutes, in full view of the whole German line. He was not very pleased with our trenches, but then went on to the 88^th, these appeared o annoy him more than ours, so he decided that we should be relieved tomorrow and the next day instead of the 88^th. 2 or 3 of the KOSBs were gassed during the night by gas shells whilst working on the Strand and Fleet St. Bayley stayed the night with us. Welch dined and we had some bridge. Dill looked in after tea.

War Diary Entry: August 3rd 1916

Went round the trenches at 5am with De Lisle, Going, Raikes & Nickalls; everything was very quiet. Got back at 9am to meet the Army Commander (Plumer) at our hd qrs; he came to see how we were getting on. Bayley & Handress Llloyd dined & Bayley spent the night in my dugout.

War Dairy Entry: July 30th 1916

Started off in a car for Ypres at 5.30am with Fuller and Gillon, and went round the trenches of the 71^st bde which we are taking over on the night of 1^st/2^nd. The Bde Major 71^st Bde took us round. The trenches are very bad, as the line runs along the low ground and water stands 1’6” below the surface. You have to build up breastworks which the Bosch continually knocks down. In several places he looks into the back of your trenches. We got back about 9.30am Went over to the 6^th Divn hd qrs after lunch as De Lisle had a conference. Our divn hd qrs are living with the 6^th Divn at present & take over from them tomorrow or the next day. Dined with Walsh at 6^th Divn hd qrs Evans was there, he is GSO2 to the divn.

War Diary Entry: July 22nd 1916

The Borders & Inniskillings relieved the SWB & KOSB respectively in the trenches during the afternoon. When the relief was half through we received a message saying the whole divn was being relieved in the line tomorrow, but it was too late to stop the relief then. The 25^th Divn are taking our place. I went down to tea with the divn, and whet through our honours list, just going in, with De Lisle. Hear we are being moved to Ypres. When I got back to Englebelmer I found Armitage) Brigadier of 74^th Bde, relieving us) waiting there, he had just been round the trenches.

War Diary Entry: July 16th 1916

Bishop of Khartoum took the Brigade parade service. Lunched with De Lisle. After lunch motored with Nickalls & Handress Lloyd over to Fricourt to look at the German trenches. I don’t think we have very much to learn from them. The whole place was like a ploughed field with shell craters. The village was knocked flat.There were a very large number of our 8” shells, unexploded, lying about.

War Diary Entry: July 10th 1916

Hunter Weston addressed all the battns in the morning. Dined with De Lisle in the evening, Motored into Doullens in the afternoon.

War Dairy Entry: July 7th 1916

Very heavy rain this morning. I met De Lisle at Mesnil Station at 10am to find some new brigade head qrs. No one can get to our present ones except in fear of their lives. The hd qrs themselves are all right except that they are too small, but every approach is incessantly shelled. He wanted us to go into a house in Mesnil near the station, a spot that is always shelled, but he eventually allowed us to establish them in a bank to the W of the village. They were shelling the station while we were waiting for him close by. We then went on round the trenches, and I got wet to the skin. 

They started shelling Thiepval Wood before 6am and went on putting them in till after 10am, metal was flying everywhere. Sometime during this, they turned the 49^th Divn out of the small bit of the German system of trenches they still held in front of the wood. Thank heaven I don’t live in the wood but can sit and watch it across the stream. 

All sorts of people looked in today. We are being relieved tomorrow by the 86^th Bde and are going back for a rest (10 days with luck). 

One of our aeroplanes fell in Aveluy Wood this morning about 500 yds behind this spot, it was flying very low at the time, I did not see it.

War Dairy Entry: 3rd July 1916

It was the intention at one time to withdraw the 29^th Divn into reserve to recoup, but it has now been decided to withdraw the 31^st instead.The 4^th Divn are taking over the 29^th Divn line as far up as Broadway, & we are to hold from there to the Ancre, the 88^th Bde on the left & 87^th on the right, 86th bde in reserve in Englebelmer. 

De Lisle came up this morning and I went all along our frontline with him. On the right down by the marsh the trenches are blown about a good deal & trees are lying across them in several places, on the left they are not so bad, but all the trenches want deepening, revetting & traversing. The Germans again bombarded Thiepval Wood once or twice, & seemed to be putting in some gas shell. It is just across the Ancre above our hd qrs so we get all the benefit of the noise, but very few of the shells. All our machine guns are laid on the Bosch trenches in front of this wood. We are being left entirely alone by them at present.

War Dairy Entry: 29th June 1916

Last night it was quieter, as far as we could hear in our dugout. The Dublins carried out a raid and struck the only place where the wire was not cut and so they did not get it in. The Corps are making us carry out these raids at a moment’s notice, & therefore without adequate preparation they are not a success. Both the R.I.F and SWB sent out small parties last night & they successfully removed  more of the enemy’s wire. Raikes came in from the firing line just after breakfast. He says the men are all standing up looking over the parapet watching our big shells bursting, and the Bosch never fire at them as they are all down below ground. Opposite the SWB there seem to be no Germans in their frontline, no one takes any notice of them when they remove the wire. De Lisle and Fuller were also both in this morning. The rain still keeps off.

War Diary Entry: June 27th 1916

Drizzled most of the day. Bombardment continuing. De Lisle looked in at about 10am. Last night the 36^th Divn in their raid brought back 1 officer 1 NCO and 11men prisoners. The Newfoundland Bn (88^th Brigade) carried out a raid from our trenches but failed to get through the wire. The 86^th Bde had wire-cutting patrols out, an NCO of one of these parties looked into the German frontline trench and found it fully occupied. None of these parties had any casualties. Went into Acheux in a divn car at about 12 midday to make arrangements for tonight as the 86^th Bde have 3 raids on, the Newfoundlanders one, and the Borders one; besides these there are a lot of wire cutting parties out. They are all going out between 12 and 1am, during which hour our guns will not fire on the german frontline trenches.

War Diary Entry: 21st June 1916

Welch, Pierce and I went to Varennes at 10am by car , to discuss the attack with the 108th bde (36th divn), they are the next brigade on our right. They have got too big a front and so are leaving a gap of 200 - 300 yards along the left bank of the Ancre which may make it very unpleasant for us. De Lisle addressed all four battns on the bombing ground in the afternoon. A Corps conference at Marieux which all brigadiers attended at 4pm.

War Diary Entry: 19th June 1916

Brigade parade at 9am. De Lisle was there and very pleased with everything. Borrowed a car from the ASC and went in to Doullens with Hilton & Gillon. Met Havell there just back from Salonika. Concert in the chateau grounds at 8am, assisted by divn band. A large crowd turned up, several people came into supper afterwards. Morgan dined. Normand, our new interpreter arrived.

War Diary Entry: 12th June 1916

Went round the trenches at 5.30am. The rain started again as soon as I got back about 9am. The trenches were extraordinarily dry considering. Welch came to lunch. Rode into Acheux in the afternoon. De Lisle went into Marieux for a Corps conference. I went in with him and took the car on to see Kelly at Gezincourt. He has turned the corner and is miles better.

Nicolls (De Lisle’s new ADC) came with me. We bought some papers in Doullens and picked De Lisle up on the way back. Heard this is not the Russians main push but that the real one starts tomorrow around Riga. They have no gun bigger than a 6” down south. Our attack has been put forward as French nervous about Verdun.

War Diary Entry: 6th June 1916

De Lisle came up this morning, he goes off on 3 days leave tomorrow. Poured with rain all the morning. The authorities have again got an attack scare on in this area. Had a COs conference at 4pm to discuss the defences.