13 March

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 13 March.

1915

• Memo from lt-Col. Machell: “from this time onwards should make every endeavour to get their men together and smarten them up after the prolonged rest entailed by vaccination. The immediate destiny of the Battalion will largely depend upon the impression formed of its merits by the Inspecting General Officer.”
• Promotions to Sergeant: W. Waddington (13652) of B Company and W. Shaw (13485) of C Company.
• Promotions to Corporal: J.A. Martindale (13433) of C Company and J. Armsgtrong (17352) of D Company.
• Appointment to Lance Sergeant: J.C. Ruddick (13745) - B Company.
• Appointments to Lance Corporal: J. Cherry (13681), G. Hay (13799), J.R. Hind (15550), J. Isles (13654) and A. Mitchinson (13865) - B Company.

1916

• Battalion situated in billets in Albert providing working parties for the Royal Engineers.
• Draft of one officer (2nd Lieut. Bourne) and 30 other ranks join the battalion.

1917

• Battalion holding the front line. Patrols are sent out and preparations made for the raid as discussed on 9 March.

1918

• Battalion situated in the line. Quiet during the day, however, the enemy puts down a heavy trench mortar and machine gun barrage on 'Egypt Ho' and the frontline of posts from 'Colombo' to the right and left at 7.30pm.
• An enemy party attempts to raid our posts, but are driven off by Lewis gun and rifle fire
• Posts 17, 18 and 19 are heavily shelled, but none of the raiders are able to reach them. Casualties: 1 officer wounded, 1 other rank missing, 1 killed, 1 wounded and missing, 4 wounded.
• The Lonsdales are relieved by the 10th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and move into Brigade Reserve. Relief is complete by 1am. Reserve and Headquarters located at La Chaudière and Companies are scattered in shelters.

References / notes

Material from Timeline/Chronology of the Lonsdale Battalion (September 1914 - May 1915) are sourced from the DLONS/L/13/13 Lowther Estate Archives. Entries from this timeline are reproduced here with kind permission of Jim Lowther and are not available under the license of this site. Please do not publish these extracts on other publicly visible media without prior permission from the copyright holder.