7 May

Apr

1 April

May

Jun

1 June

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 7 May.
For events that took place elsewhere, see 7 May on The Great War wiki.

1915 (Friday)

Events preceding the Lonsdales' arrival in France

• Lt-Col. Machell: “The Battalion will parade for inspection by the Earl of Lonsdale....Dress khaki, Marching Order – the Battalion will be formed in Mass and, after being inspected, will rank past in forms from the right hand and dismiss by Companies.
• Letter from Lt-Col. Machell: “A & detachment D with all baggage & transport horses, 2.20pm....Baggage to go up to Camp by Contractor’s line – B & C & Horses 3.40pm. - Nothing in this train but men and officers’ horses....All well here....Lord Lonsdale has been and inspected us today & made a good speech which I hope will be published – There were some reports present. All cut and dried now for tomorrow & I expect a big crush in the town this time.
• Letter to Lt-Col. Machell from GDS, High Wray Bank, Ambleside: “Welcome to your new camp. I hope you will find it really comfortable....We were very glad we came [to Carlisle]....and were in time to say goodbye to the first lot....I was very sorry you had such a mob at the end as I should like to have seen you march on but it was a wonderful sight the thin stream of khaki filtering through the two gates [The Courts] and then a sudden admixture of black coats and then the great rush coming through like a dam bursting. Well, it shows what a hold you had got on Carlisle and must surely make every man there wish he had been in your lines to have got such a send off. You deserve it too you have nursed those men and trained them and they must have often been a sore trial on your (hereditary) temper but it has been worth it all and now you can feel you have given the Empire a real tool shaped properly....out of what was at the beginning most unpromising material.

1916 (Sunday)

• Contay Wood: Battalion in isolation camp (measles) involved in Divisional and Brigade manoeuvres, training and small working parties.

1917 (Monday)

• Offoy: Battalion drill at 9am. Recreation and sports (17th Highland Light Infantry) in the afternoon and evening.

1918 (Tuesday)

• Berles-au-Bois: Usual company training during forenoon.
• At Bavincourt the following awards are presented by the Corps Commander:
  • DCM to L/Cpl. Todd;
  • Ribbon to 2nd Lt. J. Hurt;
  • DSO Bar awarded to Lt-Col. Beasley.

References

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 (7 May), 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.