All posts by Arthur Linfoot

4 June 1918; Tuesday

June 1918, ,

Up shortly after 6 o’clock. Fairly busy. A shell fell in amongst some of our chaps, killed Arthur Lewis123, and wounded Vince, Wright, McCarter, Bicknell and Tillot. Glorious weather. Slightly better news.

Concentration of Graves Record
Concentration of Graves Record. See footnotes. Click or tap to enlarge.
Location of Graves
Locations of Sharpe’s and Lewis’ graves. See footnotes.

  1. Arthur Lewis: Probably 42096 Private G A Lewis, 58th Field Ambulance, RAMC. Pte Lewis was, like Sharpe the previous day, initially buried at a site near the dressing station. His body was moved at the same time as Sharpe’s in February 1920 and is now buried at Marfaux British Cemetery. approximately 4km N of Nanteuil-la-Forêt; see yesterday’s entry. ↩

  2. The Concentration of Graves record reproduced above identifies both Lewis and Sharpe (killed yesterday) and gives the initial location of their graves as “221.8 x 266.3”, the lower of the two circles on the contemporary map also reproduced above, near a place named as Nanteuil-la-Fosse (clearly now known as Nanteuil-la-Forêt). ↩

  3. The co-ordinates given for Marfaux British Cemetery, where Lewis and Sharpe were re-interred, are given on the Concentration of Graves record as “269.9 x 220.8” (sic; actually 220.8 x 269.9), the upper of the two circles on the map (cf modern map accompanying the entry for 3 June). ↩

3 June 1918; Monday

June 1918, , ,

Up about 6.30. On duty at 8 o’clock. Fine morning. Jerry commenced machine-gunning first thing. Heard that a chap called Sharpe1 had been killed in the morning. He was buried at night near to the dressing station2 and we paraded for it. Had short walk at night.

Received 3 letters, 2 from home and one from Ranald MacDonald.

  1. Sharpe: Probably 118184 Private F E Sharpe, 58th Field Ambulance, RAMC. Now buried at Marfaux British Cemetery (B), approximately 4km N of Nanteuil-la-Forêt (A). ↩

  2. Sharpe was re-interred at Marfaux British Cemetery in February 1920, as part of the “concentration of graves” process initiated by the Army Graves Service. See glossary at the CWGC and Lewis on 4 June. ↩

31 May 1918; Friday

May 1918

Turned in at 1 o’clock and slept until about 6, [3 words deleted by ALL] this without undressing and with one blanket. Went on duty about 7 o’clock. Busy in the afternoon, †our dressing station† evening. Finished at 8 pm. Left the place full of wounded. Jerry came over and dropped bombs pretty near about 11 o’clock.

30 May 1918; Thursday

May 1918, ,

Up pretty early and on duty at 7 o’clock. The place shelled and we moved up the bank. A battery of field guns came behind us and about noon we moved. Just as we were leaving about 6 shells fell into the camp and killed two slightly wounded men. A beautiful (though warm) walk through the woods and country. Arrived at Nantueil [sic]1 about 5 o’clock. Opened up dressing station straight away. Worked until about 1 o’clock.

  1. Nanteuil: presumably Nanteuil-la-Forêt (B), 10km SE. from Chambrecy (A), 17km WSW. of Reims; Michelin 515 square D8. ↩

29 May 1918; Wednesday

May 1918, ,

Moved off in French lorries at 1.10. Travelled all night and arrived at Chambrecy1 at about 8 o’clock. Stayed there all day. Opened up dressing station in the afternoon. Got down to bed about 10 o’clock but slept badly.

  1. Chambrecy (B): 55km NW of Châlons-en-Champagne (A) and 18km SW. of Reims, on D980; Michelin map 515 square C7. ↩

28 May 1918; Tuesday

May 1918

Up at 6 o’clock. Heard first thing that we were moving and that Jerry had advanced near Reims. Received moving orders from headquarters about 10 o’clock and were on our way back at 11 o’clock. Had short walk during day †in the† night. Slept during the afternoon. Received orders to move at midnight.

26 May 1918; Sunday

May 1918, , , ,

Up about 7 o’clock. Not much to do all day. Stayed in until last thing but when I had a short walk with Willie Truman. Fine day. Wrote letter to Mr Inwood and one to Charlie and did a little French, besides reading through a book by Foottit† entitled “The Guard”1.

  1. Foottit’s “The Guard”: Author and book not yet identified. Other books are listed in Arthur Linfoot’s Library. ↩