April.
After ten days' rest at Poperinghe, the 2nd Battalion returned to Ypres, and went into cellars and dug-outs in the ramparts. On the 11th it took over the line between Railway Wood and the Menin road, where it found a large gap in the line on the left between it and the Coldstream. For the next sixteen days it remained either in this line or in Ypres. Second Lieutenant J. S. Burton joined the Battalion on the 10th, Lieutenant T. Parker Jarvis on the 20th, and Second Lieutenant J. C. Cornforth on the 21st. On the 27th the 2nd Battalion went into billets at Poperinghe, and was inspected by General Sir Herbert Plumer, K.C.B., commanding the Second Army. It remained for a week in billets, and then returned to Ypres on 4th May. One of the enemy's aeroplanes flew over one day, and dropped bombs on Poperinghe, of which one fell about twenty-five yards from Battalion Headquarters, and wounded two men.
May.
On May 5 the 2nd Battalion went into the trenches near Wieltje, and although it succeeded in relieving the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards without sustaining any casualties, it came in for a very heavy shelling the next day. Lieutenant the Hon. B. Ponsonby was wounded, and there were three N.C.O.'s killed and seven wounded. This shelling continued every day, and there was in consequence a daily list of men wounded. On the 9th the 2nd Battalion returned to billets near the Prison at Ypres, and remained there till the 13th, when it went into the trenches again. On the 10th Second Lieutenant G. A. Arbuthnot arrived. A considerable amount of work had to be done in deepening the trenches, heightening the parapets, and wiring the entanglements, for which eighty-four coils of barbed wire were used. A systematic shelling by the enemy, not only of the front line, but also of all roads and communication trenches, was daily carried out, and on the 16th Second Lieutenant J. S. Burton was killed, whilst the casualties amongst other ranks were very heavy. On the 19th the 2nd Battalion went by train to St. Omer, and marched to billets at Tatinghem, where it remained resting until June 7.
List of Officers of the 2nd Battalion
Lieut.-Colonel C. R. C. de Crespigny, D.S.O., Commanding Officer.
Major E. N. E. M. Vaughan, Second in Command.
Capt. the Hon. W. R. Bailey, Adjutant.
Lieut. W. E. Acraman, Quartermaster.
Capt. R. H. V. Cavendish, M.V.O.