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Other dates

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 17 April.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1915 (Saturday)

Events preceding the Lonsdales' arrival in France

• Lt-Col. Machell to Lord Lonsdale: "now that Grantham is cancelled & advanced party ordered back here I am anxious about our fate it is important we should make a move & I don’t see why we should not be transferred fifth to third army now that we are not to go with 112th Brigade. Could you ascertain somehow what War Office intends to do with us?"
• The lease of 11 Botchergate is used as a Sub-Recruiting Office for Blackhall Camp.
• Letter to Lt-Col. Machell from B.L. Montgomery: "You haven’t lost the general and myself yet....So my general & myself are left with you....I hate all these changes as it unsettles one, but both the general and myself are very glad that you....are still with us;....Anyhow at present you are still with us, and we don’t go to Grantham. I am afraid that neither of us can come up to you on Monday now;....But when it is all settled, one of us will come and see you. You can be assured of one thing, that wherever the general and myself go we shall do our very best to keep you with us; we both know a good battalion when we see one."
• Telegram from Lord Lonsdale to Lt-Col. Machell: "Have machine gun Lowther superannuated pattern but have harness and everything complete you are welcome to have it for instruction think ammunition could be got for it but not certain will see what else I can do."

1916 (Monday)

• B Company, C Company and D Company move into isolation camp at Contay Wood due to measles.

1917 (Tuesday)

• Germaine: Involved in cleaning up generally. New clothing is issued.
• Deaths: Stanley Richard Arnold (28206) and Arthur William Thomas (26913).

1918 (Wednesday)

• Brigade Reserve: Headquarters, C Company and D Company are in the trenches and embankments at Rabbit Wood. B Company in Purple Line and A Company with Brigade situated between Monchy and Berles-au-Bois.
• Companies resting and cleaning up. In reserve ready to man the Purple Line in case of enemy attack.
• Observation post is established at Adinfer.
• Deaths: William Martland (260239)

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 (17 April), 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.