31 March

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 31 March.
For events that took place elsewhere, see our sister project The Great War On This Day

1915 (Wednesday)

“An advance party will proceed by train to Grantham on Monday 5th.^[1]
“The Battalion will probably leave Carlisle on Wednesday 7 April by special train for Grantham. Dress. Khaki. Marching Order. Luncheon will carried in haversacks. Water Bottles will be filled. All baggage of Headquarters and Companies will be prepared the previous evening and will be stacked as directed by the Quartermaster, in readiness for removal to the railway station early on Wednesday. A fatigue party of 1 NCO and 5 men per Company under the Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant will load the baggage on the hired transport wagons and accompany to the Carlisle Railway Station, where they will unload and pack it in the train. A special label for each article will be supplied by the Quartermaster to O.C. Companies. Breakfast will be provided in Carlisle for this party.^[1]
Deprivation of Lance Stripe and forfeiture of pay: P. Colt (13797) of E Company - absent without leave.^[2]
EJ. Simpson (19442) and F. Graham (19443) enlist to E Company.^[2]

Battalion situated in the line. All quiet except for sniper and machine gun fire at night.
Allied snipers claim to have killed at least six enemy. Identification: 466 Regiment.
Deaths: John Ling (32301 Pte.) is killed in action, aged 23.

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 Please do not publish these events without prior permission from the Lowther Estate.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