20.3.18 BEUVRY: Battalion relieved 1/8th Sherwood Foresters in the ANNEQUIN LOCALITY. Battalion HQ, “C” and “D” Companies in ANNEQUIN, “A” and “B” Companies in SAILLY LABOURSE.
1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
20th March: 8th Battalion Sherwood Foresters relieved 5th Sherwood Foresters in the front line.
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
19.3.18 BEUVRY: Lieut WT STEPHENS rejoined from First Army Infantry School and took over Command of Letter “D” Company.
Warren Trestrail Stephens
1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
19th March: Enemy artillery was active on the whole front. Trench Mortars also active.
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
18.3.18 BEUVRY: Lt Col BW VANN MC proceeded on leave. Major VO ROBINSON MC took over Temporary Command of the Battalion
Bernard William Vann and Victor Owen Robinson
(Both with Military Cross Ribbons)
1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
18th March: Slight shelling of Cambin.
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
No record in the 1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
17th March: The enemy cut two gaps in our wire at A.28.c.1.6 and A.27.d.70.05 with his artillery. There was a good deal of activity with 105 mm shells on Reserve Line and Trench Junctions.
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
No record in the 1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
16th March: Enemy artillery was active during the day on:-
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
15.3.18 BEURY: 2/Lieut RW OAKLEY from hospital (South of France)
1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
15th March: Enemy artillery was active during the day on :-
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
73880 Pte Herbert Ashpole was killed in action14.3.18 BEUVRY: Battalion moved into Brigade support of CAMBRIN SECTOR.
14.3.18 BEUVRY: Captain EF WINSER attached to 465 Field Company RE. 2/Lt JF DENNIS on leave.
Eric Franklin Winser joined the 6th Battalion on the 5th October 1917 and was still serving at the end of the War. He won the Military Cross in 1918. John Francis Dennis transferred from the Robin Hood Rifles on the 14th January 1917 and and was still serving with the 1/6th Battalion at the end of the War.
1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
14th March: Brigade took over centre sector of the Divisional Front. The sector in known as ‘CAMBRIN SECTOR’.
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
Harold Dolby was from Brimington and enlisted in February 1915. He arrived in France in 1916 and was previously wounded at Lievin on the 30th May 1917.
Fred Watts was from Calow and enlisted in June 1915 and arrived in France in 1916.
Both men were most likely wounded on the working party that claimed the lives of their comrades the previous day
There is no specific information on how these three men died, but at the time the 1/6th Battalion Sherwood Foresters were providing working parties for cable burying and it is most likely that they were killed during this work, possible the result of shell fire.
Two men were also mortally wounded at this time.
Joseph Askew was a 32 year old labourer from Eckington who enlisted into the 2/6th Battalion in October 1914. He was transferred to the 1/6th Battalion in August 1915 and arrived in France with the III Reinforcement. He injured his eye and returned to hospital in England in December 1915. Joined the 6th Reinforcement in March 1916 in time for the Battle of the Somme.
No record in the 1/6th Battalion War Diary [WO/95/2694]
7th to 13th March: Training carried on under Battn arrangements. Training chiefly devoted to musketry, close order drill and route marching. Large working parties were found by Battns in turn. Cable burying.
139 Infantry Brigade: Headquarters War Diary [WO95/2692]
Derbyshire Territorials in the Great War 