8th December 1914
The rest of the Dorsets relieved the K.O.S.B., marching at 4pm via Lindenhoek to reach their trenches. The relief finished by 9pm.
It can’t have been a very pleasant welcome back to trench life for the Dorsets. The 5th Division’s diary refers to high wind and heavy rain during the night, and records that trenches were “in a dreadful state and conditions very trying”.
According the the CWGC two Dorset men died on the 8th December 1914. One of them, Private James Victor Green, is listed in locally on the Menin Gate, but the other, Private Frederick Albert Dunaway, is interred at Mons (Bergen) Communal Cemetery. This was a German cemetery until the end of the war. Perhaps his body had been found after the fighting at Mons in August or, more likely, he subsequently died of wounds while in captivity. The Dorsets’ war diary records one wounded man – presumably that’s Private Green, who later died.