18 April

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 18 April.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1915 (Sunday)

General Sir Henry Mackinnon (Commander in Chief, Western Command) to Lord Lonsdale: "I am much distressed about the War Office plans for your Battalion. I did hear that the Battalion were going to be put in the Highland Division. That would not be so bad if it were the 1st Highland, which I understand is going abroad soon. If, however, it is the 2nd Highland, I should be sorry....If you ever come across Lord Kitchener, you might mention the Battalion to him, and you certainly have my authority to say how very highly I think of the material and training." ^[1]

Contay Wood: Battalion in isolation camp (measles) involved in training and small working parties.^{[note 1]}
Lance-Corporal O. Bell writes a letter to the Workington Star and Harrington Guardian: "Dear Sir, I must drop you a line to thank you and your subscribers so much for sending me the parcel of Old Tom cigarettes. I shared them out to the lads in my Section, who I may say are nearly all from Workington and the neighbouring villages. We are some distance from the firing line just at present, but we never know the minute we may be called upon. I am writing to thank the senders of the parcel under separate cover; but it will do no harm by thanking them through your valuable paper, too. I must now conclude, wishing you all, also the Smoke Fund, the best of luck." ^[2]

Brigade Reserve: Involved in company training. Rain interferes.
Bathing commences at Monchy. New clothing is issued and boots are being repaired.
No shelling and the men benefit from the rest.
Deaths: Adam Bell (17540 Pte.) / Octavius Keen (28857 Pte.)

Notes

↑ Training continues for those who are able during the whole period of isolation, approximately one month.

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 (18 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.