Thomas Briscoe

This Remembrance Sunday I've been re-reading the war diary kept by my maternal grandmother's cousin Lance Sergeant Thomas Briscoe who served in the South Lancashire Regiment. The diary documents his time from landing at Le Havre in February 1915 through to the darkest days of the second battle of Ypres.  I've never actually seen the diary but have a transcript of the entries. Here is a part of the entry for May 5th 1915: "The Germans were shelling us all day long. At 8 pm we (A Coy) had to reinforce C Coy in the front line. C Coy had suffered very heavy losses, and also did D Coy. Capt Stannard got killed, Capt Taylor got mortally wounded, and then died of his wounds, Capt W. Heaton got wounded, Capt MacPhail got buried with a shell knocking the trench in. Capt Dr Tough R A M C. got slightly wounded C S M Gillon & Capt Kinsella got badly wounded and then died, Sergts R Burns, Hatton, H Platt. Rfn J Temple. W Pigott. Pollock got killed. Gunner W Sparkes got severely wounded, and then died from them. I began to realise now, what war was. I saw some ghastly sites. I had to put Sergt H Platt. Rfn W. Pigott, & Rfn Pollock over the back of the trench. I didn’t like the job. The Germans were bombarding our trenches all the time, They fairly had the range of them. The battalion got relieved from the trenches at 3-30 am the next morning, by the 2nd Mons. While we were going up to the front line to reinforce C&D Coy's We got the order to get our packs off and fix bayonets. I made sure we were in for a charge. I don't know quite what happened that night."  The diary stops three weeks later. Thomas died  from injuries he sustained on the 5th and the 24th May 1915.