23 December

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 23 December.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1914 (Wednesday)

Lt-Col. Machell to Lord Lonsdale: "Your magnificent present of cigars has arrived and they have been distributed. Being in boxes of 25 this was easy, and there is great excitement about it. Thank you once more for all the kind things you have done. Our Xmas card has turned out rather a poor affair. The wretch said he could not use the good photo you sent because it was not toned & substituted this bad one! ... Grand weather for work now. I hope by next Xmas the Battalion will have made a good name, & that you will never regret all that you have done for us – we will do our best." ^[1]
"Lady Valda Machell has collected from kind friends over 1200 pairs of wool mittens which have been made as Xmas presents to the Lonsdale Battalion. These mittens have been issued to Companies today – should be distributed to Officers, N.C. Officers & men forthwith." ^[2]
Arrangements are made for C Company to travel from Kendal to Carlisle.

Battalion is relieved by the 17th Highland Light Infantry and proceeds to camp at Bouzincourt.
Lt-Col. P.W. Machell: "First week in trenches, only six casualties, one, Nicholson (of Carlisle), since died. The 51st Division, to which we were attached, especially thanked Rycroft for the way the 11th Borders had played up." ^[a]^[3]

Battalion situated at Puchevillers involved in training under company arrangements.

Battalion situated in the front line; all quiet.
2nd Lieut. W. McKinlay is wounded.
2nd Manchester Regiment relieve the Lonsdales; relief completes at 11pm.
Battalion proceeds to Winnipeg and entrains for Trois Tours, then marches to Siege Camp. All present in camp by 5am on 24 December.

↑ The term "played up" is not meant in context of the men having misbehaved, but rather more appropriately and positively how they engaged themselves in their actions.

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 (23 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.