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On the 23rd November the Battalion relieved the 8/Sherwood Foresters in the right sub-sector trenches.
The water level in the front line trench had almost risen to ground level and therefore it could not be adequately garrisoned. The majority of the men were placed as support in ruined houses along the Rue-de-Bois and further back near Windy Corner. Windy Corner was constantly swept by machine gun fire and periodically shelled, particularly when trench relief was being undertaken.
It was only possible to visit the detached outposts during the hours of darkness, to do so by day would attract the unwanted attention of German snipers. This fate befell Lt Charles Houfton of the 8/Sherwood Foresters who was making his way along a flooded trench to the Boars Head when he was killed by a single shot to the head[i].
Visiting these outposts at night still required a careful journey across the Rue-de-Bois and the open ground immediately behind the front line being careful not to fall into the flooded support trenches. On many occasions sporadic machine gun fire required the party to lie prone on the ground until it had finished. The garrisons of the three outposts were relieved every 24 hours because of the strain in occupying these posts when completely isolated and subject to the constantly cold and wet conditions
[i] Lt Charles Morley Houghton was killed on 12th November 1915 and is now buried in CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, SOUCHEZ. He was 28 years old and the Son of John Plowright Houfton and Frances Houfton of Park Hall, Mansfield Woodhouse, Notts.
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On the 25th November men from the Battalion undertook a trench raid on the BOARS HEAD.
The following men were killed during this trench duty and are buried next to each other in ST. VAAST POST MILITARY CEMETERY at RICHEBOURG-L’AVOUE:-
3105 Pte. James Edgar Brocklehurst; aged 34 and a miller from Darley Dale near Matlock. Formerly served in the Volunteers
1598 Sergeant George Henry Morley; aged 22 and a coal miner from Barrow Hill in Chesterfield. A pre-War Territorial (enlisted March 1912).
2343 Pte. Arthur Simpson; aged 24 and a cashier from Chapel-en-le-Frith.
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In addition 3065 Pte. Joseph Brown; aged 20 and a miner from Grassmoor was reported missing and is now Commemorated on the LOOS MEMORIAL. He had participated in the trench raid.
Derbyshire Territorials in the Great War 