No record in the 1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
12/IX/17: Hostile TM’s fairly active, otherwise nothing to report.
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
C Company were again unfortunate the following night, when they were bombarded with heavy trench mortars and suffered nine more casualties.
- 307669 Pte William Arthur Beckett
- 305322 Pte William Smith Bell
- 305636 Pte George Oswald Darwin
- 306883 Pte L Lilley
- 305476 Pte Cyril White Parkin
“He was unconscious from the first. Everything possible was done for him, but the shock evidently proved too much for his contitution and he passed away in the 33rd Clearing Station (Bethune) on 14th [September 1917]. Had he lived I am afraid he would have lost both his legs and been a helpless cripple”.
“I am most awfully sorry to write such bad news, but I trust you will bear it with Christian fortitude. An enemy trench mortar shell landed in the middle of one of our posts the other night and killed a great number of our men, of whom Pte George Darwin was one.”
[HISTORY OF 1/STH BATTALION SHERWOOD FORESTERS 1914-1919, By CAPTAIN WCC WEETMAN]
Derbyshire Territorials in the Great War 