8 December

Lonsdale Battalion events that took place on 8 December.
For events that took place elsewhere, see 8 December on The Great War wiki.

1914 (Tuesday)

Letter from Lord Lonsdale to Lt-Col. Machell:
“I am delighted to hear that you are getting on so well, at football & all else. I fear this weather has been terribly against all proceedings, huts, etc....Certainly I will have a Photograph taken for your Xmas card & I will send you a Sketch of the Badge which is almost complete. How many badges do they require, one for cap 2 for shoulder, where else? I have two proper harness being stained & will have it stamped. What awful weather we had just over 8in of rain in 6 days here, the record for Lowther for the last 50 years.^[1]
Mrs. Trench of Workington offers to all Lonsdales who will accept it "....a portion of the Scriptures in small form." ^[2]
General Equipment Indent: 40 fencing gloves, 40 fencing arm guards, 40 fencing jackets, 40 bayonet fighting masks, 40 body fencing pads, 40 breast fencing pads.^[3]

Molliens-au-Bois: Eight men per platoon practice in the use of live hand grenades under instruction of Lieut. Kemp (Manchester Regiment).
Remainder of the Battalion is occupied with inspections, close order drill and short route marches.

Berteaucourt: Battalion parading for Aeroplane Scheme – cancelled owing to rain.
Captain (acting Major) H. Moore is transferred from 17th Highland Light Infantry to the Lonsdales with effect from 11 October as temporary Major.

Battalion situated at 'Brake Camp.' Companies at the disposal of Company Commanders.
Brigadier General C.A. Blacklock, DSO addresses the Battalion at 10am.
Thomas Newton (28956 Pte.) dies of wounds.

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 (8 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.