War Diary Entry
Trenches on Front Line - 24 Jan 1915: The Battn returned to the trenches on the night of the 24th, this time being given G section which was taken over from the RIR. The RSF being on our right the 5th Fusiliers on the left.
150 Rifles & two machine guns were in the front line, 50 men in support (54) the remaining Coy with Bn HQ & being in two farms some 500 yds behind the firing line. Both farms being in full view of the German trenches and subject to shell fire, which made it necessary for the men to remain under cover during the day.
On the morning of the 25th the supporting point 54 & Bn H.Q. were shelled, a heavy shell falling within 20 yards of Bn H.Q. at 6pm. The Bn lost Lieut Kendall who was killed by a rifle bullet.
On the 26th the shelling was again continued three shells hitting 54 but fortunately no casualties occurred.
In the early morning of the 27th Sergt. Sleepen was wounded returning from Bn HQ to Kemel.
On the 28th the RIR relieved us, the Battn returning to the same billets as previously occupied at Locre.
Bishop of Liverpool Eulogy
The Bishop of Liverpool, father of the late Capt. N. G. Chavasse, V.C., with Bar, D.S.O., M.C., who died of wounds in August, 1917, wrote as follows :—"May I repeat what my son, who is the doctor of the Liverpool Scottish, says about him in his last letter:—" ' He was a born leader of men, with the heart of a lion, and with great sagacity and coolness. He was an old Captain of England at Rugby football, and had been in the Scottish for many years as a Colour Sergeant, but had retired. When war broke out he joined again and received a commission. He was one of the most efficient officers we had, and did more in a trench than anybody. He always improved the trenches and used great ingenuity and resource in making things safer for his men and worse for the Germans. Although he was always cool and calm, yet he used great slimness and never took any risks.
His death was through a terrible piece of bad fortune. He was in a perfectly safe part of the trench giving orders to a corporal, when a bullet must have struck the branch of a tree above the trench and glanced down upon him, because he suddenly fell. They crawled to him, and he said, ' I am not hurt; what has happened? ' They said ' You are hit; where is it ? ' He said ' I don't know.' Three minutes later he was dead." ' We brought him out of the trenches that night. He was buried by the Padre in the churchyard (at Kemmel), and the Brigadier attended the funeral." " Popularity," wrote one, " is scarcely the word to be used when writing about such a man as P. D. Kendall. The feeling his fellow-players and men have for such a man is a regard amounting almost to love."
