Harrogate Herald - 1st December 1915

Police Convalescent Home

Corporal Day, of the 2nd Duke of Wellington's, attached to the third, is in the Northern Police Convalescent Home recovering from shrapnel wounds received in France. Corporal Day, who was a police constable at Cambridge when war broke out, went out with the first expeditionary force, and with the exception of the first two or three days he went through the Mons retirement and took part in the battles of the Marne and the Aisne, and was afterwards in the fighting at Ypres. It was in the first battle of Ypres that Day had a wonderful escape. In the midst of an action a bullet entered Day's cap at the peak and came out at the top, singeing his hair and scalp on the way. Day, who was asked by an officer standing by if he were hurt, took his cap to let the latter see, and the officer facetiously remarked that it had only parted his hair for him. Corporal Day and twenty-two others had their names taken on the 11th November with a view probably to DCM's, but unhappily the officer was almost immediately afterwards killed and nothing further was heard about it. They had hung on to a trench during an attack, and in spite of all the Germans efforts had kept the enemy back. We hope to publish the photograph of Corporal Day, who has become known in Harrogate for his knitting propensities, next week.

Harrogate Herald - 8th December 1915

Photo - A wounded soldier busily knitting has attracted attention in public places in Harrogate during part of the summer and autumn. This is Corporal Day, of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. He is an ex-policeman, and a sort of handy man. His industry, as he plied the needles in the Winter Gardens during the band concerts or in the Valley Gardens of an afternoon, has been generally admired. It is, however, the ladies who can best appreciate the skill and dexterity with which he knits socks. He "turns a heel" as well as any fair knitter, and "finishes the toe" as though he had been knitting all his life. Corporal day was wounded by shrapnel in the fighting at Ypres, and subsequently came to the Northern Police Convalescent Home to recuperate. He took to knitting socks to find employment for his fingers, and quickly mastered the knack of it. He has knitted almost a dozen pair of socks for soldier relatives and friends, and so neatly are they done that the recipients, but for being told, would not know they had not been done by fair fingers. His self-imposed task has created a good deal of interest among lady sympathisers, from whom he has received one or two hints, and from these the corporal has been quick to benefit. In these days when ladies are taking the places of men, it is quaint to see a man doing the work of ladies, and doing it equally as well. To get one back on the male sex for the "Sister Susie" song, the ladies ought to compose a ditty like this, "Kindly Corporal knitting kemp for kilties".

Harrogate Herald - 15th December 1915

Corporal Day, of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, who is at the Police Convalescent Home, has become a prominent figure in the town on account of his skill in knitting socks. His work attracted the attention of HRH Princess Victoria and HIH the Grand Duchess George of Russia, who both admired his knitting and complimented him upon it.