Casualties and Awards

Sunday 19th November 1916 From our Correspondent in the Field

Today the battlefield on the Somme is as quiet as we have heard it during the last five months or more. There is no sustained barrage anywhere that we can hear, just occasional muffled reports from rifles or the occasional chatter of machine guns, brief and widely spaced. There is a rumour in the army that the bad weather and the approach of winter mean that the battle is likely to have come to an end, probably to be taken up again in the Spring.

Readers might be interested in news from 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, which exemplifies a battalion’s tour in the front line when no attack is made. The adjutant, Captain Bridcutt, has sent me a list of named of those who have become casualties in the last few days:

• 28991 Lance Corporal Robert Dungay, A Company, killed 16-11-16;
• 15760 Private Arthur Turney, A Company, killed 16-11-16
• 40532 Private Walter Ward, A Company, killed 16-11-16
• 40506 Private Frederick Charles Osborne, A Company, killed 16-11-16
• 40508 Private Herbert William Thompson, A Company, killed 16-11-16
• 40535 Private Amos Hickmore, B Company, killed 16-11-16
• 16524 Private Nathan Cain, C Company, killed 15-11-16
• 29774 Private Herbert Rolfe Halls, C Company, killed 14-11-16
• 43309 Private Robert Marshall Johnson, C Company, died of wounds 15-11-16
• 27348 Private William Charles Pitts, B Company, missing 16-11-16
• 29786 Private J W Moore, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 28039 Private H Fuller, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 28084 Private Herbert Eric Berry, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 40501 Private J B Saunders, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 40519 Private F A Ovenden, A Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 14135 Corporal W Dean, B Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 10034 Private J Hammond, B Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 26234 Private G Bottomley, B Company, wounded 16-11-16
• 29793 Private G S Parker, C Company, wounded 15-11-16
• 18255 Private W G Ellis, C Company, wounded 15-11-16
• 29859 Private W North, C Company, wounded 15-11-16
• 15491 Private A Miles, C Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 4366 Private F H Hughes, C Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 27855 Private T Swain, C Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 3/8636 Lance Corporal J Holmes, D Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 3/7661 Lance Corporal R Smith, D Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 27627 Lance Corporal M Skevington, D Company, wounded 13-11-16
• 13581 Private A Dillingham, D Company, wounded 13-11-16
• 14854 Private W Hargford, D Company, wounded 17-11-16
• 29772 Private C Selsby, D Company, wounded 14-11-16
• still at duty Second Lieutenant L E Taylor, C Company, wounded 14-11-16
• 29796 Private Bertie Redding, killed, 15-11-16, C Company

The adjutant also tells me that the following mken have been awarded the Military Medal for gallantry:

• 15400 Company Quarter Master Sergeant A Fountain
• 12827 Private B F Silsby
• 15198 Private A Chandler
• 18176 Company Sergeant Major R M Brand
• 17642 Lance Corporal G S Clarke
• 15333 Pte G B Fuller