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The home of the 11th (Service) Battalion Border Regiment in the First World War

Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense — Evil Be To Him Who Evil Thinks

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At the Lonsdale Battalion wiki we believe in the sharing of knowledge to better understand a challenging and devastating period that affected hundreds of millions of people. This knowledge should be available to everyone without cost. Included here is public domain information we have been able to find, such as battalion histories, war diaries and newspaper articles. Do you have any connection with the Lonsdale Battalion and the Border Regiment? Or maybe you have some information you would like to share? If you do, then we would like to hear from you. Learn more about helping our projects.

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The Lonsdales

Battalion History

On This Day

Roll Of Honour

War Diary

Border Regiment

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Articles

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On this day

31 May

A daily listing of events across all fronts that took place on this day between 1914–1918. This information refreshes daily.

1916 (Wednesday)

• Battalion situated in Bouzincourt engaged in working parties.
• Fallen Officers – The Times List of Casualties is published: “We have received news of the death of the following officer, in addition to those whose names have been published in the official lists: Lieutenant Gerald Spring-Rice, Border Regiment, was killed on 27 May, in his 52nd year. He was the third son of the Hon. C.W.T. Spring-Rice, and brother of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, British Ambassador in Washington, and cousin of Lord Monteagle. He joined the Border Regiment last year as a transport officer after a period of valuable service as Director for Cumberland of the Voluntary Aid Detachments. He married in 1905, Mary Isabella, younger daughter of Mr. John Bush, of Beauthorn, Penrith. Mrs. Spring-Rice, who, with two sons, survives him, is nursing in Penrith Military Hospital. Interestingly, 'I vow to thee my country' was written by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, supposedly with Gerald in mind.
• Deaths: John Barwise Osborn (19691)

1917 (Thursday)

• Villers Bretonneaux: Battalion prepares for entraining.

1918 (Friday)

• Deaths: John Norman Leach (35344 Pte.)

Notes

References

Sources: Various sources contemporary to the war have been used to compile the Lonsdale Battalion on this day... (hover to read more)

Various sources contemporary to the war have been used to compile The Lonsdale Battalion On This Day. The majority of the events shown on this day (Main Page), including any supplementary notes, enlistments and statistical data etc., have been primarily sourced from the Lonsdale Battalion War Diary (November 1915 to June 1918), Record of the XIth (Service) Battalion (Lonsdale) and abridged material from Timeline and Chronology of the Lonsdale Battalion (September 1914 - May 1915), which are sourced from the original DLONS/L/13/13 Lowther Estate Archives. Events from that chronology are reproduced here with kind permission of Jim Lowther (2016). They are identified and referenced separately by their unique DLONS numbers. Please do not publish these events without prior permission from the Lowther Estate. All casualty names, numbers, ranks, date of deaths and places of burial/commemoration have been sourced from Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19, Volume 39, The Border Regiment and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database respectively.

Image slideshow

A discussion is taking place between the Commanding Officer and one of his men

"This is how you do it lads." An aiming drill staged for the photographer

Learning how to "dig-in" and the rigid training involved of digging entrenchments

Inspection of the troops by Lord Lonsdale, the men standing to attention as he passes by

Close quarter bayonet training with sandbags

Officers out for a stroll through the grounds keeping a watchful eye on the training

Officers of the Lonsdale Battalion

Parade of new recruits, many without uniform

There is no getting away from the morning stretches!

Commanding Officer, Percy Machell and other officers, watch the physical drill instructor

A route march through the streets of Carlisle

A route march through the streets of Carlisle, the fanfare of the lads marching off to war

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