The First Gallantry Awards to the 1/8th (Leeds Rifles) Bn, West Yorkshire Regiment
Second Lieutenant Eric Fitzwater Wilkinson - Military Cross 1266 Rifleman John Clough - Distinguished Conduct Medal Since it had arrived in France, and concentrated, with the rest of the 49 th (West Riding) Division in the area around Merville, the 1/8 th (Leeds Rifles) Battalion, the West Yorkshire Regiment had deployed to trenches in the Fleurbaix sector, and had moved, largely on foot, northwards to Belgium. Despite it now being at the end of June and the beginning of July 1915, the weather, which greeted the battalion as it crossed the border, was unseasonably wet. The battalion war diary reports that the men marched in heavy rain towards Proven on 29 th June, where it would go into bivouacs. No doubt the men would have been relieved to find that next stage of their journey, to Elverdinghe, would be made by motor bus. The area in front of Elverdinghe had recently been taken over by the British Army from the French. It had been necessary to move elements of the allied armies
