This record of leaves taken from Pte Percy Wilson’s AB 64 paybook includes his Embarkation Leave, between 30/11/42 and 7/12/42, shortly before the Battalion sailed for North Africa from Liverpool, on 25/12/42. The fact that no rail warrants were issued for leaves prior to mid-1942, suggests that he must have been based at Brancepeth at this time, which was only a bus ride or two away from Ryton and Newcastle. Rail warrants were certainly required to get home to the North East from Rye on the South Coast, where the 16th DLI was based in 1942. The officers’ signatures post-April 1942 to December 1942 must have been A Company, 16th DLI. Captain M H Brown was the A Company CO at this time. Some of the signatures above do look like ‘MHB’ Or do they? For a listing of 16 DLI officers in May 1942, click here.
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