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Updated: June 26, 2025
"When we got back to Bilge Trench we found that there had been two or three casualties, and one dug-out totally demolished. Colonel Best-Dunkley came on the scene, and started strafing one or two people about something. He stayed and had a cup of tea in our mess.
"Then General Stockwell went off, and Colonel Best-Dunkley carried out his orders. We could see that we were now in for a very long halt here. It would take a deuce of a time to collect the Battalion together again! So we lay down under the shade of the roadside hedge and discussed the whole affair.
'Colonel Best-Dunkley, gentlemen, non-commissioned officers, and men of the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers, I am very sorry indeed to have to say what I am going to say to you now' he began.
It is interesting to note the summary of the situation written by the chronicler of the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers in the 1917 Lancashire Fusiliers' Annual: "On May 26th, the Battalion moved back to the Prison. Lieutenant-Colonel B. Best-Dunkley went on leave the same day, leaving Major Brighten in command.
"We have spent the day 'under company arrangements': a series of inspections in the field outside the barn. "At 5.30 Colonel Best-Dunkley wished to see all officers and sergeant-majors at Headquarters Mess. When we got there we adjourned to Battalion Orderly Room. He kept us until after 7, discussing various matters of routine.
There were officers from other units connected with us there; and Best-Dunkley made sure that everybody knew exactly what he had got to do and what assistance he could expect from anybody else. He was calm and dignified and even polite.
And I learnt that Colonel Best-Dunkley himself was only twenty-seven! It was the pride of the Battalion that it was led by youth. If ever a proof were required of the truth of Disraeli's famous maxim "The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity," it is here in the brilliant record of the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers. Let Mr.
About a hundred yards on my right, slightly in front, I saw Colonel Best-Dunkley complacently advancing, with a walking stick in his hand, as calmly as if he were walking across a parade ground. I afterwards heard that when all C Company officers were knocked out he took command in person of that Company in the extreme forward line. He was still going strong last I heard of him.
"Battalion Headquarters was situated at Spree Farm, and they only received late warning that the enemy were near them. Lieutenant-Colonel B. Best-Dunkley gathered together all men available, and, placing himself at the head, beat off the counter-attack at this point.
"After this Colonel Best-Dunkley walked down the lane with us and accepted Giffin's invitation to come inside B Company's Mess. He had a drink with us there, and stayed a minute or two.
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