Personal Diary: September 7th 1916

Went round the trenches with Welch & Cookson, starting at 4.30am, the work the KOSBs did last night was rotten, their offiers are rather hopeless. A flight of about 17 of our aeroplanes passed over us at 9.30am heading for Germany, they got well peppered, but I did not see any hit. There have been one or two airfights above here lately, in every case the Bosch has bolted precipitately. The Bosch were firing big mortars away on our left at dusk.

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: September 2nd 1916

Went round the trenches at 5.30am with Handress Lloyd. The Strand and Fleet St very wet. Motored back to near Poperinghe with Welch at 9am to see the breaking up display at the Divn school. Lunched at the 86^th Bde Hd Qrs. Two gas alarms during the night, but no gas came our way. I certainly saw from the ramparts, when their flares went up, large clouds of what looked like smoke blowing northwards along no man’s land but it may have been from the shells. The Australians are back taking over the line again in these parts & the 4^th Divn are coming out into Corps reserve.

Personal Diary: 31st August 1916

The 88th Bde got their gas off tonight but the wind can't have been very good as our people decided not to let it go. Went round the trenches at 5.30am with Morris, they are in a better condition than I expected after the rain. Bayley dined & slept.

Personal Diary: 30th August 1916

Rained all day with a fine drizzle, getting heavier at times, & a strong wind. Cleared up at dusk. Trenches flooded and falling in. Gas could not be let off again tonight as wind unfavourable. All four battns out clearing out drains and getting the water out of the trenches.

Personal Diary: August 29th 1916

Went round the right subsector with Welch at 5.30am, found lots of gas cylinders not properly sandbagged in. The gas was to have been let off tonight accompanied by a bombardment but the wind changes so it was off. Rain started coming down in torrents about 3pm and flooded all the trenches. A gas alarm started some miles S of us and spread all along the line about 10.30pm, we managed to stop it going further. Have not heard whether any gas was really let off. Bayley dined & slept.

The Inniskillings and Borders relieved the KOSB & SWB respectively after dark & must have got nice and wet going up.

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 26th 1916

Went up to the trenches at 4am with Handress Lloyd and Morris to look at the work in Wieltje. The Inniskillings had not completed their full amount. Fuller & Bayley came in in the morning. Bayley again dined & slept last night. Harrington (Maj Gnel) came to see me this afternoon. West (left group RA) dined. They are starting to turn 4 gun batteries into 6 again to economise officers, this rather upsets the gunners.

Personal Diary Entry: August 25th 1916

As the defences of Wieltje have got to be pushed on the Inniskillings were turned on tonight to dig a new trench to connect B.10a with Monmouth trench. Yesterday morning a German got into the front line trench held by the left coy KOSBs about 9am. The line is very thinly held owing to lack of men, and there are some holes in the breastwork where it has been blown down by shells. The man was removing his clothes and apparently intended to put on a sergts greatcoat which was lying near. He was flushed by a passing signaller who had no arms; the German escaped whilst the signaller went for assistance. One of our aeroplanes had to land behind the german lines in our front this afternoon.

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.

Personal Diary Entry: August 18th 1916

The SWB and KOSB went up to Ypres preparatory to taking over the trenches tomorrow night. Dill came in to lunch. Rode in to Poperinghe with Cookson after tea.

Personal Diary Entry: August 14th 1916

Went to divn hd qrs at 4pm to meet the King. Brigadiers & Staffs of the 4^th & 29^th Divn were there. Everyone was introduced to him, he stayed to tea and cleared off at 4.45. The Prince of Wales was with him. They had an intense bombardment this morning for his benefit on the trenches in front of the Canadians. He is staying at Cassel, which is at the moment (on that account) a prohibited area for all aeroplanes. Yesterday morning one of ours flew over the place and was fired at furiously by every gun we’ve got; the officer was put under arrest when he landed.

War Diary Entry: August 9th, 1916

This morning we discovered that practically the whole of the left coy of the Inniskillings and the left coy of the Hampshires (next to us on the right) had been gassed, but not the right company of the Inniskillings which was between them. All the rats in the trenches and the birds and a cat in Potije Wood had died. 21 transport animals of the Inniskillings which were up in Potije died after they got back to their lines. Later in the day (about midday) several men in the right company of the Inniskillings began to go sick many of them dying quite suddenly, until the total casualties in this battn reached 15 officers and about 150 men, about a third of these being dead by the afternoon.

Those who succumbed at once when the gas was first discharged died peacefully without apparent pain, those who were only affected some hours later turned blue and foamed at the mouth & nose.

The alarm worked well & everyone appeared to have had the warning, but I think some of the officers & NCOs went about without their helmets on seeing the men were all right waiting for the first sniff, and then it was too late. Other men apparently exhausted after wearing them for 2.5 hours took them off after midnight and lay down to sleep in the bottom of the trenches and dugouts which were still not properly cleared of gas.

Then a number of men who had been affected, but did not know it worked hard all the morning clearing away the casualties, and this exercise had fatal results. We found a number of dead and dying rats in Ypres. One of the bdes in the 4^th Divn on our right was also gassed and had several casualties, the Germans attempted a raid on them but were beaten off. Some Germans came out of their trenches opposite us, but our machine guns kept up a fire the whole time so they did not come on.

The Borders and Inniskillings were relieved after dark by the 86^th Bde & the whole bde came back into reserve just E of Poperinghe.

War Diary Entry: August 8th 1916

More shelling during the day, particularly at a battery about 200 yards N of our hd qrs. they got direct hits on all the emplacements and dugouts but did no damage.

At 10.30pm the gas alarm was sounded, and everyone was warned. The guns opened a heavy barrage on our front. I got onto the Borders and Inniskillings and both sent in messages that though they could smell gas it was not being discharged on their front. The Inniskillings message proved to have been a mistake on the part of the signallers. On this information I stopped the guns firing on our front. Fuller & Mellor were up regulating the transport & came in to our hd qrs. After about 20 minutes we began to smell gas in Ypres so we all put our helmets on, but it never got really bad, occasionally getting thicker and then dying away. The relief of the two reserve battns went on at the prison and on the canal bank and they hardly felt its effects at all. At 12 midnight everything seemed to be over so I went to bed. The prepared blankets over all the doors and windows kept the gas out of the dugouts quite effectively.

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: August 1st 1916

The Brigade took over the trenches in the left sector tonight. The SWB took over the left half and the KOSBs the right half . The Borders came up to the canal bank and the Inniskillings into the prison. Relief completed by about 12.30am.

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.