2nd Lieut. C. T. Swift, No. 3 Company.
2nd Lieut. L. de J. Harvard, No. 3 Company.
2nd Lieut. R. H. P. J. Stourton, No. 3 Company.
Capt. L. G. Fisher-Rowe, No. 4 Company.
2nd Lieut. P. S. Hope, No. 4 Company.
Attached—Capt. J. C. B. Grant.
The Battalion remained in billets at Poperinghe or Kiekenput until the 18th, when it moved up into the trench line. On the 7th a gloom was cast over the whole of the British Army by the death of Lord Kitchener, who went down in the Hampshire, mined on its way to Russia. This passing away of a great soldier came as a profound shock to every one in France. At first no one could realise that he was dead. The men felt that the mainspring of the whole mechanism of the British Army was gone.
The Battalion remained for ten days in reserve, and although there were constant alarms, during which the men stood to arms, and news of gas attacks, its services in the front line were not required. On the 18th it took over the trench line near Irish Farm, and Nos. 2, 3, and 4 Companies were placed in the firing line, with the King's Company in reserve. Although the enemy's patrols were very active, nothing worth recording appears to have happened, but on the 25th a successful raid was carried out into the German lines, and a new trench north of Forward Cottage was made. On the 27th the Battalion retired into dug-outs in Canal Bank and Yperlee, where it remained until the end of the month.
July 1916.
On July 1 it returned to the trenches, and on the 3rd the King's Company was so heavily bombarded that the parapet of the trench and the signal dug-out were blown in. The Company Sergeant-Major, two sergeants, three signallers, and four men were completely buried under the debris, but the remainder of the Company at once set to work to rescue as many as possible under a heavy shell and machine-gun fire. Owing to the energetic manner in which the rescue party worked, one sergeant and three men were brought out alive, but the others were all dead.