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Other dates

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 20 April.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1915 (Tuesday)

Events preceding the Lonsdales' arrival in France

• "....there has been a great amount of overcrowding in the horse boxes used as billets in the....Camp. Please inform me if this has been remedied."
• "....if it had been intended continue occupation horse boxes I would have recommended building huts but these boxes will not be re-occupied when Battalion leaves. Expect order leaving Carlisle daily. Meanwhile average daily sick Company occupy boxes six out of strength 262 which is far better than that of any other company."
• Thomas Norman (19492 Pte.) enlists to B Company.

1916 (Thursday)

• Contay Wood: Battalion in isolation camp (measles) involved in training and small working parties.
• A draft of 21 other ranks join the Battalion.

1917 (Friday)

• Hombleux: Day is occupied by physical, platoon and company drill. Training of specialists.

1918 (Saturday)

• Brigade Reserve: Day spent quietly in preparations for going into line in the evening. No shelling.
• Officers and advanced parties reconnoitre the line.
• Battalion finishes bathing at Monchy.
• Relives 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. A Company and B Company move into the front line, D Company moves into support and C Company into reserve. Relief completes 10.30pm.
• Deaths: George William Davie (15518 Pte.)

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 (20 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 Please do not publish these events without prior permission from the Lowther Estate.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.