19 March

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 19 March.
For events that took place elsewhere, see 19 March on The Great War wiki.

1915 (Friday)

Lt-Col. Machell’s draft letter to Henry Mackinnon, Western Command:
“I hear that we are probably to assemble at Grantham early in April. As regards strength almost up to 1350, all ranks, but we are now weeding steadily & recruiting has checked since we had to close our private recruiting office. Today our strength is 29 officers, 1302 NCO’s & men. I am collecting officers gradually, and I think I can get the men. It did us so much harm before having to turn men back. I am sorry to say we still have only our 400 old rifles, and 10 new miniature, but I have borrowed 10 service rifles & collected 2500 rounds of ammunition.^[1]
The miniature [firing] range is at the disposal of Companies who have not yet completed the group shooting practice; will later do fire the timed application practice.^[2]

The Division continues its advance.
Lonsdales march to Herley, which was completely destroyed by retiring enemy. They remain there the night.

Battalion situated in the line. All Quiet.
Wiring work done during the night. Patrol reconnoitres ground between posts 15 and 17. Aircraft is active.
Deaths: Ernest Bell (201636 Pte.) / Richard Grimshaw Calvert (34758 Pte.) / Lionel Frederick Vincent Hobson (33733 Pte.)

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 Please do not publish these events without prior permission from the Lowther Estate.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