Heavy rain most nights since I returned, but the days have not been bad, only showers. It was not gas in young Crymble’s case, only a medical way of expressing a kind of gangrene. Went over to the 9^th today. Met Fergie en route. Lutton is going to the signal section with a view to becoming Bde. Signal Officer, at his own request. He feels that it is his job and he is right. I am sorry we shall lose him from the Battalion. It gives us a vacancy for Captain, so it will promote Fergie.

Footnote

During Lieutenant Colonel Blacker’s absence on leave, Second Lieutenant John Gordon Crymble was wounded by a shrapnel bullet in the right leg on 22 December. He subsequently developed ‘gas gangrene’ and died of wounds in 2^nd Casualty Clearing Station on 28 December 1916. He had joined the Battalion only on 7 October 1916 and was 19 years old. He was buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension.

Gas gangrene (clostridial myonecrosis) is an infection caused by the Clostridium perfringens bacteria that produces gas in gangrenous tissues. Gas gangrene cases had a high mortality rate.