23 December

Nov

1 November

December

Jan

1 January

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

1

2

3

4

Other dates

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 23 December.
For events that took place elsewhere, see 23 December on The Great War wiki.

1914

• 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.”
• Arrangements are made for C Company to travel from Kendal to Carlisle.
• “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.”

1915

• Battalion is relieved by the 17th Highland Light Infantry and proceeds to Bouzincourt.
• “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.” – Lt-Col. P.W. Machell

1916

• Battalion situated at Puchevillers involved in training under Company arrangements.

1917

• Battalion situated in the front line; all quiet, however, 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.

References / notes

Material from Timeline/Chronology of the Lonsdale Battalion (September 1914 - May 1915) are sourced from the DLONS/L/13/13 Lowther Estate Archives. Entries from this timeline are reproduced here with kind permission of Jim Lowther and are not available under the license of this site. Please do not publish these extracts on other publicly visible media without prior permission from the copyright holder.