22 December

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 22 December.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1914 (Tuesday)

Lt-Col. Machell’s draft letter recommending discharge: "Ex-Sergeant E.J. Caine....Having been found to be useless as an Instructor he was appointed Pioneer Sergeant. On 12th Nov he was placed under arrest for drunkenness & was released with a warning. On 28th Nov he was again very drunk, and created a considerable disturbance in Camp. He was reverted to the ranks." ^[1]

Battalion situated in the F1 sub-sector near Bouzincourt.
Capt C. Clart, Officer Commanding B Company, is admitted to hospital.
Capt B.C. Harrison takes over command of B Company.
Lt-Col. P.W. Machell: "The men are excellent. I am very energetic, as you may imagine, and they respond splendidly. I am quite delighted with them. They are not foolish at all, just sensible, and do their job without the smallest fuss, though the hardships for them are demandable. For us it is much better, as we can generally get dry socks and a better place to lie in…I have nothing to complain of at all. I am working day and night."

Newspaper article Missing - L/Cpl. E.J. Bowman is published in the Workington Star and Harrington Guardian.
Battalion situated at Puchevillers. Paraded for Brigade route march is postponed owing to rain.

Battalion situated in the front line; all quiet.
Captain. J. Cook Gray, M.C., and Privates Thomas Little (15386) and Joseph Henry Stonestreet (33505) are killed in action.

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 Please do not publish these events without prior permission from the Lowther Estate.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