A bright breezy day, and everything drying up well. We go in about 5.00 p.m. and dine in the line. Am not particularly looking forward to this tour. They have been knocking the trenches about with T.M.’s [trench mortars] and there is a lot of repair work to be done. Send a wire or line of congratulations to Menaul. Hope to have a bukh with Holt when I go in this evening. 14680 M. Strothers, Portadown, was badly injured on Saturday. He was a prisoner in the guard tent, and a branch of a tree fell on the tent and fractured his skull. Candles badly wanted now. Woollen caps have arrived in the nick of time, and 400 pairs socks just as we needed them.

Footnote

14680 Private Maxwell Strothers died on 7 October 1916; Nieppe Communal Cemetery. He was one of four brothers who served with the Battalion. One was killed in action during the attack on 1 July 1916 and a second brother would die in Dublin in January 1917. A third brother was wounded on 1 July 1916 but survived the war.