17 February

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

1915 (Wednesday)

Letter to Lt-Col. Machell: “The Brigadier-General desires me to notify you of his satisfaction with his inspection of your Battalion yesterday. He was struck by the intelligent interest shown by Officers and men in the work they were performing and considers that the training is proceeding on sound lines in every branch. The appearance and bearing of the Battalion merit commendation.^[1]
Battalion Orders: On Saturdays the Canteen will be open for the sale of intoxicating liquors from 2pm till 9.15pm.^[2]
J. Walker (13477) and A. Reed (13209) of C Company are discharged on medical grounds.^[3]

2nd Inniskilling Fusiliers relieve the Lonsdales in Albert.
The Battalion billets in huts in Hénencourt Wood.
Lt-Col. Machell: “Five weeks on end out of trenches. First move to be deep mud and leaky huts in a wood, no shells, but no water anywhere. The French villages have no water supply except doubtful wells and fish ponds. Brigadier temporarily while General Jardine away.

Battalion situated in the field. By night all companies are working in forward area under CRE (Commander Royal Engineers) with the exception of 50 men of C Company who volunteer for raid on night 18 February.

Notes

References

Acknowledgements

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 February), 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 Please do not publish these events without prior permission from the Lowther Estate.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.