20 February

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Other dates

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 20 February.
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

• Total strength of the Companies: 1313 men.
• Copy telegram from Major Binning: [oil] Engine completely broken down send man immediately.

1916 (Sunday)

• Hénencourt Wood: In hut billets involved in fatigue duties.
• Lance-Corporal C.W. Pugh writes a letter:

“Dear Sir, I am very pleased to say that I received the concertina quite safe to-day, and I desire to thank you and the donor for this gift. I have handed the concertina to Private Whitehead, and he is quite satisfied with it and wishes to thank the donor, who happens to be an old pal of his, and both the concertina and playing cards enclosed are being freely used by the Platoon. We were quite taken by surprise when it arrived, and never expected such a ready response to the appeal. I can safely say that Workington men of the Lonsdales have not wanted long for anything if made it known to the public. We are now a few miles behind the line of fire, but how long we shall remain here I cannot say. We are well in mud, but our sleep is not disturbed at night by shells or whizz-bangs, so we shall put up with any other inconveniences. We are at present experiencing some very wet weather, which does not improve the terra firma. I must draw to a close, wishing your valuable paper every success, and again thanking Mr. ___ for his kindness. Private Whitehead also expresses his thanks, and never expected that his friend would be the donor, and the mention of the name gave him remembrances of his football days. With best thanks and kind regards.

1917 (Tuesday)

• Miravaux: General parades for training and instruction.
• Deaths: William Glover (23424 Pte.)

1918 (Wednesday)

• Battalion situated in camp near Woesten.
• Day is spent in cleaning up and improving billets; camp is scattered, consisting of old shelters and a few huts.

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 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.