The Irish Guards in the Great War, Volume 2 (of 2)

Chapter IX: Part 9

Text size

Vieux-Berquin had been a battle, in the open, of utter fatigue and deep bewilderment, but with very little loss of morale or keenness, and interspersed with amazing interludes of quiet in which men found and played upon pianos in deserted houses, killed and prepared to eat stray chickens, and were driven forth from their music or their meal by shells or the sputter of indefatigable machine-guns. Our people did not attach much importance to the enemy infantry, but spoke with unqualified admiration of their machine-gunners. The method of attack was uniformly simple. Machine-guns working to a flank enfiladed our dug-in line, while field-guns hammered it flat frontally, sometimes even going up with the assaulting infantry. Meanwhile, individual machine-guns crept forward, using all shelters and covers, and turned up savagely in rear of our defence. Allowing for the fact that trench-trained men cannot at a moment’s notice develop the instinct of open fighting and an eye for the lie of land; allowing also for our lack of preparation and sufficient material, liberties such as the enemy took would never have been possible in the face of organised and uniform opposition. Physically, those three days were a repetition, and, morally, a repercussion of the Somme crash. The divisions concerned in it were tired, and “fed-up.” Several of them had been bucketed up from the Somme to this front after punishing fights where they had seen nothing but failure, and heard nothing but talk of further withdrawals for three weeks past. The only marvel is that they retired in any effective shape at all, for they felt hopeless. The atmosphere of spent effort deepened and darkened through all the clearing-stations and anxious hospitals, till one reached the sea, where people talked of evacuating the whole British force and concentrating on the Channel ports. It does not help a wounded man, half-sunk in the coma of his first injection, to hear nurses, doctors, and staff round him murmur: “Well, I suppose we shall have to clear out pretty soon.” As one man said: “’Twasn’t bad at the front because we knew we were doing something, but the hospitals were enough to depress a tank. We kept _on_ telling ’em that the line was holding all right, but, by jove, instead of them comforting us with wounds all over us, we had to hold _their_ hands an’ comfort ’em!”

As far as the Guards Division was concerned, no reports of the fight—company, battalion or brigade—tally. This is inevitable, since no company knew what the next was doing, and in a three days’ endurance-contest, hours and dates run into one. The essential fact remains. The 4th Guards Brigade stopped the German rush to the sea through a gap that other divisions had left; and in doing so lost two thirds at least of its effectives. Doubtless, had there been due forethought from the beginning, this battle need never have been waged at all. Doubtless it could have been waged on infinitely less expensive lines; but with a nation of amateurs abruptly committed to gigantic warfare and governed by persons long unused even to the contemplation of war, accidents must arise at every step of the game.

Sir Douglas Haig, in his despatches, wrote: “The performance of all the troops engaged in the most gallant stand,” which was only an outlying detail of the Battle of the Lys, “and especially that of the 4th Guards Brigade on whose front of some 4000 yards the heaviest attacks fell, is worthy of the highest praise. No more brilliant exploit has taken place since the opening of the enemy’s offensive, though gallant actions have been without number.” He goes on to say—and the indictment is sufficiently damning—that practically the whole of the divisions there had “been brought straight out of the Somme battlefield where they had suffered severely, and been subjected to great strain. All these divisions, without adequate rest and filled with young reinforcements which they had had no time to assimilate, were again hurriedly thrown into the fight, and in spite of the great disadvantage under which they laboured, succeeded in holding up the advance of greatly superior forces of fresh troops. Such an accomplishment reflects the greatest credit on the youth of Great Britain as well as upon those responsible for the training of the young soldiers sent from home at the time.” The young soldiers of the Battalion certainly came up to standard; they were keen throughout and—best of all—the A.P.M. and his subordinates who have, sometimes, unpleasant work to do at the rear, reported that throughout the fight “there were no stragglers.” Unofficial history asserts that, afterwards, the Battalion was rather rude to men of other divisions when discussing what had happened in the Forest.

On their relief (the night of the 14th-15th April) they moved away in the direction of Hazebrouck to embus for their billets. There was a certain amount of shelling from which the Coldstream suffered, but the Battalion escaped with no further damage than losing a few of the buses. Consequently, one wretched party, sleeping as it walked, had to trail on afoot in the direction of Borré, and those who were of it say that the trip exceeded anything that had gone before. “We were all dead to the world—officers and men. I don’t know who kicked us along. Some one did—and I don’t know who _I_ kicked, but it kept me awake. And when we thought we’d got to our billets we were sent on another three miles. That was the final agony!”

What was left of the Brigade was next sorted out and reorganised. The 12th (Pioneer) Battalion of the K.O.Y.L.I., who had borne a good share of the burden that fell upon our right, including being blown out of their trenches at least once, were taken into it; the 4th Grenadiers and 3rd Coldstream, of two weak companies apiece, were, for a few days, made into one attenuated battalion. The 2nd Irish Guards, whose companies were almost forty strong, preserved its identity; and the enemy generously shelled the whole of them and the back-areas behind the Forest on the 16th April till they were forced to move out into the fields and dig in where they could in little bunches. Captain C. Moore, while riding round the companies with Colonel Alexander, was the only casualty here. He was wounded by shrapnel while he was getting off his horse.

On the 17th and 18th April they took the place, in reserve, of the 3rd Australian Brigade and worked at improving a reserve line close up to Hazebrouck. The enemy pressure was still severe, no one knew at what point our line might go next, while at the bases, where there was no digging to soothe and distract, the gloom had not lightened. The Australians preserved a cheerful irreverence and disregard for sorrow that was worth much. The Battalion relieved two companies of them on the 19th in support-line on the east edge of the Forest of Nieppe (Bois d’Aval) which was thick enough to require guides through its woodland rides. Here they lay very quiet, looking out on the old ground of the Vieux-Berquin fight, and lighting no fires for fear of betraying their position. The enemy at Ferme Beaulieu, a collection of buildings at the west end of the Verte Rue-La Couronne road and on the way to Caudescure, did precisely the same. But, on the 21st April, they gassed them most of the night and made the wood nearly uninhabitable. Nothing, be it noted once more, will make men put on their masks without direct pressure, and new hands cannot see that the innocent projectile that lands like a “dud” and lies softly hissing to itself, carries death or slow disablement. Gassing was repeated on the 22nd when they were trying to build up a post in the swampy woodlands where the water lay a foot or two from the surface. They sent out Sergeant Bellew and two men to see if samples could be gathered from Ferme Beaulieu. He returned with one deaf man who, by reason of his deafness, had been sent to the Ersatz. The Sergeant had caught him in a listening-post!

Next night they raided Ferme Beaulieu with the full strength of Nos. 2 and 4 Companies (eighty men) under 2nd Lieutenants Mathew and Close. It seems to have been an impromptu affair, and their sole rehearsal was in the afternoon over a course laid down in the wood. But it was an unqualified success. Barrages, big and machine-gun, timings and precautions all worked without a hitch and the men were keen as terriers. They came, they saw, and they got away with twenty-five unspoiled and identifiable captives, one of whom had been a North-German Lloyd steward and spoke good English. He told them tales of masses of reserves in training and of the determination of the enemy to finish the War that very summer. The other captives were profoundly tired of battle, but extremely polite and well disciplined. Among our own raiders (this came out at the distribution of honours later) was a young private, Neall, of the D.C.L.I. who had happened to lose his Battalion during the Vieux-Berquin fighting and had “attached himself” to the Battalion—an irregular method of transfer which won him no small good-will and, incidentally, the Military Medal for his share in the game.

Life began to return to the normal. The C.O. left, for a day or two, to command the Brigade, as the Brigadier was down with gas-poisoning, and on April the 25th a draft of fifty-nine men came in from home. Captain A. F. L. Gordon arrived as Second in Command, and Captain Law with him, from England on the 28th. On the 27th they were all taken out of D’Aval Wood and billeted in farms round Hondeghem, north of Hazebrouck on the Cassel road, to strengthen that side of the Hazebrouck defence systems. Continuous lines of parapet had to be raised across country, for all the soil here was water-logged. Of evenings, they would return to Hondeghem and amuse the inhabitants with their pipers and the massed bands of the Brigade. Except for the last few days of their stay, they were under an hour’s notice in Corps Reserve, while the final tremendous adjustments of masses and boundaries, losses and recoveries, ere our last surge forward began, troubled and kept awake all the fronts. They were inspected by General Plumer on the 15th for a distribution of medal-ribbons, and, having put in a thoroughly bad rehearsal the day before, achieved on parade a faultless full-dress ceremonial-drill, turn-out and appearance all excellent. (“The truth is, the way we were put through it at Warley, we knew _that_ business blind, drunk, or asleep when it come to the day. But them dam’ rehearsals, with the whole world an’ all the young officers panickin’, they’re no refreshment to drilled men.”)

On the 20th May, when the line of the Lys battle had come to a stand-still, and the enemy troops in the salient that they had won and crowded into were enjoying the full effect of our long-range artillery, there was a possibility that their restored armies in the south might put further pressure on the Arras-Amiens front, and a certain shifting of troops was undertaken on our side which brought the 4th Guards Brigade down from Hondeghem by train to Mondicourt on the Doullens-Arras line, where the drums of the 1st Grenadiers played them out of the station, and, after a long, hot march, to Barly between Bavincourt and Avesnes. Their orders were, if the enemy broke through along that front, they would man the G.H.Q. line of defence which ran to the east of Early Wood, and, for a wonder, was already dug. There is an impenetrability about the Island temperament in the face of the worst which defies criticism. Whether the enemy broke through or not was in the hands of Providence and the valour of their brethren; but the Battalion’s duty was plain. On the 22nd, therefore, they were lectured “on the various forms of salutes” and that afternoon selected, and ere evening had improved, “a suitable site in the camp for a cricket-pitch.” Cricket, be it noted, is not a national game of the Irish; but the Battalion was now largely English. Next day company officers “reconnoitred” the G.H.Q. line. After which they opened a new school of instruction, on the most solid lines, for N.C.O.’s and men. Their numbers being so small, none could later boast that he had escaped attention. At the end of the month their 1st Battalion borrowed four lieutenants (Close, Kent, Burke, and Dagger) for duty, which showed them, if they had not guessed it before, that they were to be used as a feeding battalion, and that the 4th Guards Brigade was, for further active use, extinct.

On the 9th June, after a week’s work on the G.H.Q. line and their camp, Captain Nugent was transferred as Second in Command to the 1st Battalion, and 2nd Lieutenant W. D. Faulkner took over the duties of Acting Adjutant.

On the 11th they transferred to camp in the grounds of Bavincourt Château, a known and well-bombed area, where they hid their tents among the trees, and made little dug-outs and shelters inside them, when they were not working on the back defences. But for the spread of the “Spanish influenza” June was a delightful month, pleasantly balanced between digging and divisional and brigade sports, for they were all among their own people again, played cricket matches in combination with their sister battalion, and wrote their names high on the list of prize-winners. Their serious business was the manufacture of new young N.C.O.’s for export to the 1st Battalion, and even to Caterham, “where they tame lions.” Batches of these were made and drilled under the cold eye of the Sergeant-Major, and were, perhaps, the only men who did not thoroughly appreciate life on the edge of the Somme in that inconceivable early summer of ’18.

The men, as men must be if they hope to live, were utterly unconcerned with events beyond their view. They comprehended generally that the German advance was stayed for the while, and that it was a race between the enemy and ourselves to prepare fresh armies and supplies; but they themselves had done what they were required to do. If asked, they would do it again, but not being afflicted with false heroisms, they were perfectly content that other battalions should now pass through the fire. (“We knew there was fighting all about an’ about. We knew the French had borrowed four or five of our divisions and they was being hammered on the Aisne all through May—that time we was learning to play cricket at Barly, an’ _that_’ll show you how many of us was English in those days! We heard about the old Fifth and Thirty-first Divisions retaking all our Vieux-Berquin ground at the end o’ June (when we was having those sports at Bavincourt) an’ we was dam’ glad of it—those of us who had come through that fight. But no man can hold more than one thing at a time, an’ a battalion’s own affairs are enough for one doings.... Now there was a man in those days, called Timoney—a runner—an’ begad, at the one mile and the half mile there was no one could see him when he ran, etc. etc.”)

The first little ripples of our own returning tide began to be felt along the Arras-Amiens line when on the 4th of July the Australians, under Lieutenant-General Monash, with four companies of the Thirty-third American Division and many tanks, retook our lost positions round Hamel and by Villers-Bretonneux. The Battalion celebrated that same day by assisting the American troops with them (and the Guards Division) at their national game. Here the Second in Command narrowly escaped serious injury in the cause of international good-will, for a baseball, says the Diary most ungallantly, “luckily just missed him and struck a V.A.D. in the face.” The views of the V.A.D. are not given.

The 14th July, the French celebration at Paris, fell just on the eve of Marshal Foch’s historical first counter-attacks which, after the Second Battle of the Marne, staggered the German front, when the same trees that had hidden the 1st Battalion’s dead at Villers-Cotterêts, close on four years ago, covered and launched one of the armies that exacted repayment. And the 2nd Irish Guards, entirely appreciating the comfort of their situation, despatched to Paris every member of their bureaucracy who could by any means hatch up passable excuses for helping to form the composite battalion which should grace the festivities there. The C.O. (the Second in Command had gone on already), the Adjutant, the Assistant Adjutant, the Sergeant-Major, the M.O., the Sick Sergeant, the Orderly-Room Clerk, the Signalling Sergeant, the Mess-Sergeant, and all the drums managed to get away. So Captain Nutting chaperoned the remainder down to the pleasant watering-place of Criel Plage, which is over against Dieppe. This time they were set up in business as a young officers’ seminary for the benefit of newly commissioned officers who were to be taken in hand by the 4th Guards Brigade before passing on. Many of them had had considerable service in the ranks, which again required a special form of official education. They were distributed among the battalions to the number of twenty-five or thirty each, and drilled as companies. Whatever they learned, they were, beyond question, worked up to fit physical trim with the others, and, at the Guards Brigade Sports, the Battalion covered itself with glory. They won every single event that counted for points, and the Brigade championship by an overwhelming aggregate. Next day, being the fourth anniversary of the War, they listened to a serious sermon on the matter—as they had listened to others—not much crediting that peace was in sight. Among the specialists who lectured them on their many businesses was an officer from the G.H.Q. Physical and Bayonet Training School, who spoke of “recreational training”—boxing for choice—and had a pretty taste in irony. For he told them how well some pugilists had done in the War; citing the case of an eminent professional who had been offered large purses to appear in the ring, but, feeling his country needed him, declined them all and, when the War had been going on for rather more than two years, joined a select body of cavalry, which, after another year, he discovered was not going to the front. This so wrought on him that he forthwith gave his services to the G.H.Q. Bayonet School, where he had flourished ever since, heroically battling against stuffed gunny-bags. The Battalion held its breath at the record of such bravery; and a few days later professed loud horror at an indent which came in for a hundred and fifty men and four officers—a draft for their 1st Battalion. The Guards Division had been at work again since the 21st August on the thrice fought-over Moyenneville-St. Léger-Mory ground, in our northern attack which had followed Rawlinson’s blow round Amiens. The whole of the 4th Guards Brigade was drawn upon to help make good the wastage, and its draft of six hundred and seven men was one of the finest that had ever been furnished—trained to the last ounce, and taught to the limits of teaching. The young officers attached for instruction left after a joyous dinner that lasted till late in the dawn. And it may be that the draft had dined also; for, on the way to the station, one of our men who had lost his cap and had paraded in steel-helmet order was met by “a lady from out of a house,” who solemnly presented him with the missing article. It was an omen of victory and of the days when steel helmets should become curios.

They returned to their depleted camps until more young officers came along for instruction, and in the last week of September their comrades, the 4th Grenadiers and the 3rd Coldstream, were called away to the moving front—“to fight”—as the horrified Diary puts it! Actually, the two battalions merely followed the advance in the wake of the cavalry corps as mobile infantry on lorries, till the 26th of October. They then returned to their brigade till the 14th November, when they joined the Guards Division for the march into Germany.

For the next six weeks or so, then, Criel Plage was all the Battalion’s deserted own during the autumn days that saw the German armies driven back, but it is interesting to observe that, on the 10th of October, a special order of the day, issued by the G.O.C. Fourth Army, laid down that “all peace-talk must cease.” As usual, they seemed to know more in the back-areas than at the front, where the 1st Battalion certainly did not believe on the chances of any immediate end.

On the 14th October, their small world was shaken out of all its talk by the really serious news that their C.O. (Colonel the Hon. H. R. Alexander) was to transfer to command the 10th Army School. He left on the 18th, and the whole Battalion turned out to bid him good-bye with an affection few commanding officers had ever awakened. He wrote in orders (but he had spoken as well, straight from his heart): “I wish to express my sincere grief in leaving the Battalion I am so fond of. We have been through some hard times together, but the remembrance of those battles in which the 2nd Battalion has taken such a glorious part will always be a great pride to me. Remember the great name that this wonderful Battalion has made for itself in the War. Be proud of it and guard it jealously. I leave you with complete confidence that its reputation is safe in your hands. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the loyalty that you have always shown me during the whole time that I have had the honour of commanding you. I wish you all and individually the best possible luck and success, and a safe return to your homes when the War is over.”

It is undeniable that Colonel Alexander had the gift of handling the men on the lines to which they most readily responded; as the many tales in this connection testify. At the worst crises he was both inventive and cordial and, on such occasions as they all strove together in the gates of Death, would somehow contrive to dress the affair as high comedy. Moreover, when the blame for some incident of battle or fatigue was his, he confessed and took it upon his own shoulders in the presence of all. Consequently, his subordinates loved him, even when he fell upon them blisteringly for their shortcomings; and his men were all his own.

On the 26th October the 4th Grenadiers and the 3rd Coldstream returned from their adventures at the front with the cavalry, full of their impressions that everything was over now except the shouting. Then there was more “peace-talk” than ever in the camp, and, three days after the Armistice was declared, the Battalion with the Brigade rolled statelily out of Criel for Cambrai by a “strategical” train, which is slower than a sundial. They were clean, polished, and splendid to behold, and they instantly fought with Brigade Headquarters and their own trench-mortar battery, who had generous ideas as to the amount of truckage which they themselves required.

They wandered half round northern France on that queer journey, halting for hours in a battered world just realising that the weight of the past four years had lifted. Whereby everybody attended to everything except his proper job. At this distance one sees how all men were walking in a mild delirium of reaction, but it annoyed people at the time. Said one who had experienced it: “Ye would come on a man an’ ask him for what ye wanted or where you was to go, an’ the Frenchman, he’d say, ‘_Oui! Oui! Gare finne_,’ an’ smile an’ rub his hands an’ push off. The Englishman—some dam’ back-area sergeant-clerk or ticket-collector that had been playin’ ping-pong at Boulogne since ’14—he’d smile the same way an’ ‘’Tis over, ’tis over!’ he’d say, clean forgettin’ everything for you that he hadn’t done wrong-end-up. But we was all like that together—silly, foolish, an’ goin’ about grinnin’.” At one of their many resting-places, they found the 4th Grenadiers who had started four hours before them. The rail ahead was reported mined, and though the Battalion politely suggested that their friends might hurry on and test the truth of the rumour for themselves the Grenadiers declined. Men were beginning to set a value on their lives again. At ruined Cambrai, forty-eight hours after their start, they were warned to join the Guards Division, who were going to Cologne, and to travel light, as no further transport could be taken up. So they dumped surplus kit, including boots, which was a mistake, at Cambrai, and waited twenty-four hours till lorries should turn up, as guaranteed. When these at last appeared no destination was laid down, but the Guards Division was supposed to be somewhere near Maubeuge. They lost their way from Cambrai at the outset and managed to mislay no small portion of their lorries, all the Battalion, less Headquarters, and a good deal of the 3rd Coldstream, ere they reached Maubeuge, which was in the full swing of Armistice demonstrations. Their orders were to march with the 2nd Guards Brigade next day to Vieux Reng, which they did through a friendly and welcoming country-side, and on the 20th November to Charleroi through Marchienne where they were met by a mad brass band (entirely composed of men in bowler hats!). The roads filled as they went on, with returning prisoners even more compositely dressed than the natives—a general gaol-delivery of hidden, escaped, released, and all the flotsam and jetsam of violently arrested war. The customs of His Majesty’s armies were new to the world, and Charleroi did not in the least understand “saluting drill” with the drums in the background, and when, to this marvel, was added the sight of a regiment of Grenadiers at physical drill, hopping on one foot, they assembled and shouted like the men of Ephesus.

The next move (November 24th) was to Presles on a frosty day, with billets for the officers in the superbly comfortable Château, with its pictures and wallpapers intact on the wall, handles to the doors, and roofs of flawless integrity. To wake up among surroundings that had altogether escaped the past four years was curious. (“Somehow or other, it felt like being in a shop where everything was free, and one could take down what one wanted. I remember looking at a ceiling with flowers painted on it one morning and wondering how it hadn’t been cracked.”) They were landed in the dull and cramped village of Lesves by November the 25th and rained upon in their utter boredom. Our national methods of conquest have nothing spectacular. They were neither talked to, sung to, nor lectured on their victory, nor encouraged to demonstrate their superiority over the rest of mankind. They marched and mourned that they had not brought spare boots. Company physical training and drills were kept up, and the sole thing approaching war was a football match of the right half-battalion against the left, which blossomed into an argument, which verged upon a free fight and, almost, the slaughter of the umpire. At Petit Han, in the remoter districts of the border where the people had accepted the Hun from the first, and had profited by his rule, the attitude of the civilians changed. Here they were prosperous pacifists who objected to militarism; even cursing and swearing and shaking their fists at the invaders. So one old lady had to be gently locked up in her own room for two hours while billets were being arranged and the officers patiently argued and entreated. Ouffey, another hamlet of a few sad houses, was of the same unaccommodating temper, and their transport turned up hours late after being delayed by traffic and bad roads. A halt was necessary here to sort out the general confusion of our brigades converging on Cologne. They were held, then, at Ouffey till the 10th December, another day at Aisomont, an unknown village, and at last on the 12th crossed into Germany from Stavelot at Pont Rucken with the Brigade. The Battalion, whose staff never neglected their interests, had contrived to secure waterproof capes at some issue or other, which they wore under the approving eyes of the Corps Commander, who watched the march past in the unending rain. Honsfeld was their last journey afoot; there they got orders to go south to Burg and entrain for Cologne, and at Ehrenfeld, on the outskirts of that city, they dropped into the Pioneer Barracks, fitted with every luxury from electric-light to drying-rooms and baths, and found the inhabitants both friendly and intensely curious.

Here some of our men noticed, first, how keenly curious were the natives to discover exactly what the strangers had in their minds, and, that point established, exactly how far they might presume upon their limitations. It was soon felt that our armies boasted no tradition nor ritual of victory as the Germans understood it—that the utmost they could devise was some form of polite police-work and traffic regulation. So, as one observer put it—“There was Jerry takin’ stock of us, under his hatbrim at the street-corners in the wet; and there was those little steamers with some of our officers in charge (an’ the Irish flag flyin’ at the bows of course) convoyin’ prisoners an’ refugees an’ details an’ all, up an’ down that Rhine River, like pirates play-actin’! An’ there was the Jerry frowlines so polite an’ anxious for to please, playin’ the ‘Marseillaise’ an’ ‘God Save the King’ to the officers in the evenin’, an’ every Jerry willin’ to sell us everything he thought we’d like to buy. An’ there was us Micks mountin’ guard on the dumps, an’ patrollin’ the streets an’ sittin’ on machine-guns acrost bridges in that wet an’ cold an’—an’ ’twas all like play-actin’. Nothin’ real to it at all, except the long waitin’ an’ we crazy to get home. Maybe the new hands an’ the cease fire drafts liked the victoriousness of it, but for us, the old birds, that had come through great doin’s for so long, ’twas not in nature, ye’ll understand. All false-like, except the dam’ ceremonials.”

The last was quite true. The “smartening-up” that overtook both battalions in Cologne was of a thoroughness new even to the extended experience of the “old birds.” Sergeants, sickened by long months of gritty and dusty hutments that ruin the bloom and port of the ideal “soldier,” with officers on the rebound from service requirements to a desperate interest in the haberdashery and appurtenances of real, and possible, life, fell upon them from either flank; while colonels in the background and generals on far heights proclaimed the iniquity of deviating by one hair’s breadth from the highest standards of propriety in kit, conduct, and bearing while they were among the late enemy. So they said, with justice, that Jerry managed to give them as much trouble when they occupied him as when he was occupying them on the Somme.

It was an insane interval of waiting, as the world did in those days, for the immediate demobilisation of democratic hosts, all units of which were convinced that they had the right to go home before all others. “The prisoner at the Bar,” as men then styled Germany, being entirely at home, was saving himself to continue the War underground when time, occasion, and dissension among his conquerors should show him his chance. But of this there was no foreknowledge. The hearts of the men who had borne the burden were still pulsing to the thud of the guns; their minds still obsessed in their leisure by the return of horrors seen and heard; their souls crying out for something that should veil them from themselves; and at the hour when the spent world, like a spent battalion, most needed a few low-voiced, wholly unsentimental orders and an orderly return to light but continuous mechanical work, when, above all, it was in no shape to be talked at or to or over, it was delivered to whirlwinds and avalanches of allocutions, exhortations, and strenuously conflicting “ideals” that would have shaken the sanity of the gods themselves. Thus the barren months passed. The most fortunate people were those who had their hands full of necessary and obvious work—mere detail to be put through for immediate needs. “We cursed it enough at the time, but we would have given a good deal for it afterwards. You see, it kept one from thinking.”

And in the spring of ’19 came the release, and the return of the Guards to England, and, on a grey March day, the Division, for the last time, was massed and moved through London, their wounded accompanying them on foot, or in the crowded lorries, while their mascots walked statelily in the intervals.

To see the actual weapons with which great works have been done is always astonishing. The stream of troops seemed scanty between the multitudes that banked it. Their faces, too, told nothing, and least of all the faces of the veterans—the sergeants of twenty-three, and the commanding officers of twenty-eight, who, by miracle or the mercy of severe wounds, had come through it all since that first hot August evening, at the milestone near Harmignies, when the first bullet fell on the turf, and men said, “This is The War!” The wounded, in civil kit, having no more fear of their superior officers before their eyes, occasionally, when they shouted to a friend, gave away by unguarded tone, or change of countenance, a hint of the hells which they had shared together. And London, solid on its pavements, looked, counted over, compared, hailed, but never too loudly, some known face in the ranks or figure on horseback, and rejoiced or grieved as the fortune of war had dealt with its men. For the Guards belong to London, and, by that time, even the Irish Guards were half London recruits.

The Second Battalion of the Irish Guards was marked to be disbanded later, with thousands of others. Their loyalty, their long endurance, their bravery—the ceaseless labour, love, and example that had gone to their making and upholding, in which work men had died as directly as any killed by gas or shell—had done all that was called for. They made no claim to have accomplished or suffered more than others. They knew what load had been laid upon all.

They were the younger battalion, born in Warley, officered from the first by special reserve officers, always most intimately bound up with their sister battalion, yet always most strictly themselves. They had been a “happy” battalion throughout, and, on the admission of those whose good opinion they most valued, one that had “done as well as any” in a war that had made mere glory ridiculous. Of all these things nothing but the memory would remain. And, as they moved—little more than a company strong—in the wake of their seniors, one saw, here and there among the wounded in civil kit, young men with eyes which did not match their age, shaken beyond speech or tears by the splendour and the grief of that memory.

COMMANDING OFFICERS

2ND BATTALION

FROM AUGUST 16, 1915

APPENDIX A

OFFICERS KILLED IN ACTION OR DIED OF WOUNDS

1ST BATTALION IRISH GUARDS

Lieut.-Colonel C. FitzClarence, V.C.
(Temp. Brigadier-General),
In Command of 1st Guards Brigade, 12.11.14

Lieut.-Colonel G. C. Nugent, M.V.O.
(Temp. Brigadier-General),
In Command of 5th London Infantry Brigade, 31.5.15

Lieut.-Col. The Hon. J. F. Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, D.S.O.
(Temp. Brigadier-General),
In Command of the 20th Brigade after Commanding 1st Battalion,
24.10.15

Lieut.-Colonel The Hon. G. H. Morris, 1.9.14

MAJORS

T. M. D. Bailie, 15.9.16
The Lord Desmond FitzGerald, M.C., 3.3.16
The Earl of Rosse, 15.6.18
H. F. Crichton, 1.9.14
H. A. Herbert-Stepney, 6.11.14
G. H. C. Madden (Temp. Lieut.-Col.), 12.11.15
G. E. S. Young, 31.3.17

CAPTAINS

H. H. Berners, 14.9.14
The Lord Arthur Hay, 14.9.14
The Hon. A. E. Mulholland, 1.11.14
E. G. Mylne, 12.6.15
The Hon. P. J. H. Ogilvy, M.C., 9.10.17
E. C. Stafford-King-Harman, 6.11.14
C. A. Tisdall, 1.9.14
V. C. J. Blake, 28.1.16
M. V. Gore-Langton, M.C., 10.10.15
E. J. F. Gough, 30.12.14
J. N. Guthrie, 13.5.15
The Lord John Hamilton, 7.11.14
L. R. Hargreaves, M.C., 25.9.16

LIEUTENANTS

A. L. Bain, 4.11.18
R. St. J. Blacker-Douglass, M.C., 1.2.15
E. Budd, M.C. (Acting Captain), 8.8.18
B. S. Close, 27.9.18
S. E. F. Christy, 12.7.16
H. J. B. Eyre, 15.7.17
J. K. M. Greer, M.C., 3.10.16
W. E. Hope, 6.11.14
K. R. Mathieson, 1.11.14
J. H. Nash, 27.8.18
F. L. Pusch, D.S.O., 27.6.16
E. H. Shears, 4.7.17
T. K. Walker, 24.4.16
L. C. Whitefoord, 15.9.16
H. R. Baldwin, 29.8.18
G. Brooke, 7.10.14
T. Butler-Stoney, 1.10.17
L. S. Coke, 31.10.14
N. F. Durant, 30.11.17
V. W. D. Fox, 18.5.15
The Lord Guernsey, 14.9.14
G. M. Maitland, 1.11.14
T. Musgrave, 6.2.15
C. Pease, 18.9.16
R. J. P. Rodakowski, 9.10.17
C. R. Tisdall, M.C., 15.9.16
J. N. Ward, 29.8.18

2ND LIEUTENANTS

T. Allen, 25.2.15
N. Butler, 15.9.16
H. A. Connolly, 27.8.18
V. J. S. French, 10.10.18
F. H. N. Lee, 4.7.16
E. C. G. Lord, 8.5.18
C. S. O’Brien, M.C., 27.9.18
T. S. V. Stoney, 9.10.17
N. L. Woodroffe, 6.11.14
G. P. Boyd, 3.9.17
L. H. L. Carver, 26.5.18
H. V. Fanshawe, 11.10.17
H. S. Keating, 20.1.15
L. C. L. Lee, 1.2.15
H. Marion-Crawford, 16.4.15
J. M. Stewart, 1.4.15
A. L. Wells, 9.10.17

OFFICERS ATTACHED TO 1ST BATTALION

Capt. Rev. J. Gwynne, 11.10.15
Lieut. C. de B. G. Persse (7th Dragoon Guards), 18.5.15
Capt. H. J. S. Shields, R.A., M.C., 26.10.14
2nd Lieutenant Davis (U.S.A. Medical Service), 27.9.18

2ND BATTALION IRISH GUARDS

Major E. B. Greer, M.C. (Acting Lieut.-Colonel), 31.7.17
Major R. A. French Brewster (died), 17.2.17

CAPTAINS

E. D. Dent, 12.4.18
C. E. R. Hanbury, 9.10.17
The Hon. H. A. V. St. G. Harmsworth, M.C., 12.2.18

LIEUTENANTS

C. H. Brew, 12.10.16
J. W. M. Dame, 27.11.17
F. St. L. Greer, M.C., 1.2.17
C. G. H. C. Hyne, 21.11.16
J. Kipling, 27.9.15
J. C. Maher, 14.4.18
E. L. Mylne, M.C., 15.9.16
C. F. Purcell, 15.9.16
F. L. M. Pym, 2.7.16
A. F. Synge, 27.11.17
G. Y. L. Walters, 15.9.16
W. G. Cary-Elwes, 27.11.17
M. R. Fitzgerald, 19.4.18
D. D. Hudson-Kinahan, 9.4.16
G. L. B. James, 18.7.17
M. B. Levy, M.C. (Acting Captain), 12.4.18
H. Montgomery, 13.9.16
D. C. Parsons (Temp. Captain), 15.9.16
C. J. Pym, 27.3.17
A. J. Rowan-Hamilton, 21.10.15
F. P. H. Synge, M.C. (Acting Captain), 29.7.17
C. D. Wynter, 5.10.15
R. H. W. Heard, M.C. (died), 3.3.19

2ND LIEUTENANTS

A. S. Armfield, 31.7.17
R. C. Bellew, 21.8.17
M. B. Cassidy, 13.4.18
G. V. B. Hine, 6.10.15
T. Pakenham-Law, 27.9.15
K. C. Vaughan, 13.9.16
N. D. Bayly, 27.11.17
T. A. Carey, 5.12.17
W. F. J. Clifford, 27.9.15
A. H. O’Farrell, 27.9.18
A. G. Tomkins, 13.9.16
T. B. Wilson, 18.7.17

OFFICERS ATTACHED TO 2ND BATTALION

Captain Rev. S. S. Knapp, D.S.O., M.C., 31.7.17

IRISH GUARDS OFFICERS WITH OTHER REGIMENTS

Lieut. J. N. Marshall, V.C., M.C. (Acting Lieut.-Colonel,
attached Lancs. Fusiliers), 4.11.18
2nd Lieut. C. H. Eiloart (Guards Machine Gun Regiment), 27.9.18
2nd Lieut. E. H. Fallows (att. Guards Machine Gun Regiment), 27.3.18
2nd Lieut. A. G. Hunt (Guards Machine Gun Regiment), 4.11.18
2nd Lieut. N. King (att. Guards Machine Gun Regiment), 26.5.18
Lieut. C. H. Lord Settrington (died of wounds received in
action with the Russian Relief Force), 24.8.19
Lieut. J. C. Zigomala, M.B.E. (killed whilst serving with
the Russian Relief Force), 25.8.19

OFFICERS WOUNDED

Major Lord D. FitzGerald, M.C. (twice w.) 1.9.14; Oct. 1915
R. St. Blacker-Douglass, M.C. 1.9.14
Capt. Hon. H. W. Gough, M.C. 14.9.14
Capt. J. N. Guthrie (twice w.) 14.9.14; (v. slightly) 16.4.15
Lieut.-Col. E. B. Greer, M.C. 28.10.14
Capt. W. C. N. Reynolds 31.10.14
Major R. H. Ferguson (twice w.) 31.10.14; 23.6.17
Lieut.-Col. Hon. H. Alexander, D.S.O., M.C.,
L. of H. (twice w.) 1.11.14; Oct. 1917
Capt. M. V. Gore-Langton, M.C. 1.11.14
Capt. Lord Kingston 1.11.14
Lieut.-Col. Hon. T. Vesey (twice w.) 31.10.14; 27.9.15
Col. Lord Ardee, C.B. 7.11.14; gassed 4.4.18
Major R. S. Webber 12.11.14
Capt. C. R. Harding 12.11.14
Capt. P. H. Antrobus, M.C. 13.11.14; gassed July 1917
Capt. G. P. Gough 25.12.14
Capt. F. H. Witts, M.C. (three times w.) 25.12.14; Oct.1917; 25.5.18
J. T. Robyns (accidentally) 17.1.15
Major P. S. Long-Innes, M.C. (twice w.) 1.2.15; 15.9.16
Capt. A. H. Blom 1.2.15; S.S. 25.9.16
Capt. F. F. Graham 2.2.15
Capt. Hon. H. A. V. St. G. Harmsworth (twice w.) 11.2.15; 2.8.15
Capt. T. E. G. Nugent (accidentally) (twice w.) 24.3.15; 3.3.16
Capt. C. Pease (twice w.) 16.5.15; 15.9.16
Capt. R. B. H. Kemp 17.5.15
Capt. E. G. Mylne 17.5.15
Capt. S. G. Tallents 17.5.15
Lieut.-Col. P. L. Reid 18.5.15
Capt. H. T. A. H. Boyse 18.5.15
Major W. E. Earl of Rosse 18.5.15
Capt. R. S. G. Paget (twice w.) 18.5.15; 18.7.17
Major G. E. S. Young (twice w.) 18.5.15; 16.3.17
E. W. Campbell 18.5.15
Capt. J. R. Ralli 18.5.15
Capt. Hon. W. S. P. Alexander, D.S.O. 18.5.15
J. K. M. Greer, M.C. (twice w.) 18.5.15; 15.9.16
Capt. A. W. L. Paget (twice w.) 19.5.15; 27.7.17
Capt. Sir G. H. Burke, Bt. 19.5.15
L. S. Straker 17.6.15
K. W. Hogg 31.7.15
Brig.-Gen. R. J. Cooper, C.B., C.V.O. (M.E.F.) 16.8.15
W. B. Stevens 27.9.15
Capt. R. E. Sassoon, M.C. (twice w.) 27.9.15; (slight) 8.9.17
R. H. S. Grayson (twice w.) 27.9.15; Oct. 1917
R. H. W. Heard 7.10.15; gassed 26.4.18
J. Grayling-Major 8.10.15
Lieut.-Col. G. H. C. Madden 11.10.15
Capt. F. P. H. Synge, M.C. (twice w.) 21.10.15; July 1916
T. F. Tallents, M.C. (twice w.) 21.10.15; Oct. 1917
Capt. G. N. Hubbard 16.11.15
S. E. F. Christy 20.12.15
Capt. R. J. P. Rodakowski (twice w.) 25.3.16; 25.9.16
F. H. N. Lee 18.6.16
Temp. Major J. N. Marshall, V.C., M.C., attached
Lancs. Fus. (twice w.) 19.6.16; June 1917
Lieut.-Col. R. V. Pollok, D.S.O. (twice w.)
25.7.16; 28.3.18; gassed 11.4.18
H. R. Hordern (severely) 3.8.16
Capt. D. C. Parsons 13.9.16
J. C. Zigomala (twice w.) 13.9.16; 30.3.18
Capt. A. C. W. Innes, M.C. 15.9.16
Count J. E. de Salis (twice w.) 15.9.16; July 1917
H. C. Holmes 15.9.16
T. Butler-Stoney 15.9.16
D. J. Hegarty 16.9.16
J. N. Ward (twice w.) 15.9.16; 9.4.18
Capt. R. Rankin 15.9.16
Major C. E. A. Rocke, D.S.O. 15.9.16
C. H. Brew 15.9.16
M. R. FitzGerald 15.9.16
C. G. H. C. Hyne 15.9.16
G. V. Williams, M.C. (twice w.) 25.9.16; 13.10.18
T. C. Gibson (twice w.) 25.9.16; 13.9.17
Capt. P. R. Woodhouse, M.C. R.A.M.C. (attached)
(twice w.) 25.9.16; Oct. 1917
Rev. F. M. Browne, M.C. (attached) (twice w.) 25.9.16; Oct. 1917
Capt. L. R. Hargreaves, M.C. 25.9.16
P. G. Denson 1.1.17
C. E. R. Hanbury Jan. 1917
J. Orr 2.2.17
D. S. Browne (twice w.) 25.2.17; 9.10.17
W. C. Mumford, M.C. 15.3.17
Capt. J. W. Dalton (twice w.) 25.3.17; 7.4.18
N. B. Bagenal (three times w.) 13.7.17; Oct. 1917; 30.3.18
H. J. Lofting 18.7.17
Capt. J. B. Keenan (twice w.) 21.7.17; 21.10.18
H. H. Maxwell (twice w.) 26.7.17; 10.10.17
R. L. Dagger 29.7.17
R. Hannay 29.7.17
Lieut. G. E. C. Vaughan-Morgan July 1917
N. M. Buller (twice w.) 31.7.17; 24.5.18
G. L. Crawford 31.7.17
E. H. Dowler (twice w.) 31.7.17; Oct. 1917
Capt. H. F. d’A. S. Law, M.C. 1.8.17
H. E. Van der Noot 3.8.17
Major R. R. C. Baggallay, M.C. 14.8.17
A. R. S. Nutting, M.C. 17.8.17
A. F. D. de Moleyns 20.8.17
J. J. Kane (slight) 8.9.17
Capt. T. F. MacMahon, M.C. 11.9.17
C. E. Bagot Oct. 1917
B. S. Close Oct. 1917
T. Corry, D.C.M. Oct. 1917
E. M. Harvey, M.C. Oct. 1917
Capt. R. B. S. Reford, M.C. Oct. 1917
Capt. Hon. H. V. Harmsworth, M.C. 27.11.17
F. C. Lynch-Blosse 27.11.17
S. S. Wordley 30.11.17
J. M. R. Wreford 30.11.17
P. M. Riley (twice w.) 30.11.17; 24.5.18
G. K. Thompson, M.C. 30.11.17
G. E. Van der Noot 30.11.17
Capt. W. Joyce (twice w.) 30.11.17; 29.8.18
A. F. L. Gordon, M.C. 19.1.18
S. S. Harrison 24.3.18
Capt. the Hon. H. B. O’Brien 26.3.18
D. J. B. FitzGerald 27.3.18
F. G. de Stacpoole 2.4.18
A. S. Stokes 2.4.18
C. W. Brisley 3.4.18
J. A. S. Gatti, M.C. 3.4.18
Lieut. F. S. L. Smith, M.C. (twice w.) 12.4.18; 4.11.18
C. L. Browne 13.4.18
Capt. G. L. Bambridge 14.4.18
G. J. S. Repton 15.4.18
A. A. Tindall 15.4.18
Capt. C. Moore 17.4.18
E. O. Mackwood (gassed) 24.4.18
C. A. J. Nicholson 25.4.18
P. F. O’Driscoll 25.4.18
G. C. MacLachlan 29.4.18
T. B. Maughan 2.5.18
Capt. C. W. W. Bence-Jones (twice w.) 24.5.18; 27.9.18
P. R. J. Barry 24.5.18
D. R. Williams 25.5.18
Lieut. K. E. Schweder (gassed) 14.8.18
Lieut. J. A. M. Faraday 22.8.18
Lieut. P. S. MacMahon 29.8.18
G. T. Heaton 29.8.18
H. Connolly 29.8.18
A. E. Hutchinson 29.8.18
Lieut. C. A. J. Vernon 18.9.18; gassed 29.8.18
Lieut. G. F. Mathieson 27.9.18
A. R. Boyle 27.9.18
Capt. the Hon. B. A. A. Ogilvy 27.9.18
H. M. Henderson 10.10.18

OFFICERS MISSING

Capt. Viscount Castlerosse (wounded and since found) 1.9.14
Hon. A. Herbert (wounded and since found) 1.9.14
Lord R. Innes-Ker (wounded and since found) 1.9.14
Brig.-Gen. Hon. L. J. P. Butler, C.M.G., D.S.O. (since found) 8.9.14
G. M. Maitland 1.11.14
Capt. Lord A. J. Hamilton 6.11.14
J. Kipling (killed in action) 27.9.15
F. L. M. Pym (killed in action) 3.7.16
B. O. D. Manning 13.9.17
W. G. Rea 27.11.17
N. D. Bayly (killed in action) 27.11.17
M. R. FitzGerald 13.4.18
Lord Settrington 13.4.18
M. B. Cassidy 13.4.18

REWARDS

VICTORIA CROSS

Acting Lieut.-Colonel J. N. Marshall 13.2.19

C.B.E.

Brig.-General R. Le N. Lord Ardee (Base Comdt.) 3.6.19
Colonel Sir J. Hall, Bart 3.6.19
Major R. V. Pollok (Comdt. Sch. of Instr.) 3.6.19

D.S.O.

Major H. R. L. G. Alexander 1.1.16
Captain W. S. P. Alexander 20.8.17
Major R. R. C. Baggallay 1.1.19
Colonel the Hon. L. J. P. Butler Jan. 1916
Major Hon. A. C. S. Chichester (Staff) 3.6.18
Captain A. F. L. Gordon 12.12.19
Major T. W. B. Greenfield, (Staff) 18.1.17
Colonel R. C. A. McCalmont 1.1.17
Major R. V. Pollok 28.12.17
Lieut. F. L. Pusch (19th Bn. London Regiment) Sept. 1915
Captain W. A. Redmond 28.9.17
Lieut.-Colonel C. E. A. S. Rocke 28.12.17
Major (Temp. Brig.-Gen.)
Hon. J. F. Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis 16.2.15
Captain F. H. Witts (Staff) 2.6.19

O.B.E.

Major Hon. A. C. S. Chichester (Staff) 3.6.19
Captain T. C. Gibson ”
Major C. R. Harding ” 3.6.19
Major St. J. R. Pigott ”
Lieut.-Colonel P. L. Reid ” 4.6.18
Captain W. C. N. Reynolds ” 3.6.19
Captain S. G. Tallents ” 3.2.20
Captain B. B. Watson ” 10.6.19
Captain R. G. C. Yerburgh ” 3.6.19

M.B.E.

Captain J. S. N. FitzGerald (Staff)
Captain and Qr. H. Hickie 12.12.10

MILITARY CROSS

Major H. R. L. G. Alexander 1.1.16
Lieut. E. E. Anderson 30.10.17
Captain P. H. Antrobus 28.12.17
Major R. R. C. Baggallay (Staff) 1.1.17
Captain G. L. St. Bambridge 13.9.18
Lieut. P. R. J. Barry 10.11.18
Lieut. J. Black 30.10.17
Lieut. R. St. Blacker-Douglass 10.3.15
Captain H. Bracken (att. 20th K.L. Regt.)
Lieut. P. B. Brown 1917
Lieut. D. S. Browne 10.12.19
Rev. F. S. du Moulin Browne (att. 1st Bn. I.G.) 11.1.19
Lieut. E. Budd 7.4.17
Lieut. H. A. A. Collett 10.11.18
Lieut. J. A. M. Faraday 15.10.18
Lieut. W. D. Faulkner 1.1.19
Major Lord D. FitzGerald 22.6.15
Captain J. S. N. FitzGerald
2nd Lieut. R. Gamble 1.1.17
Lieut. J. A. S. Gatti 26.7.18
Captain A. F. L. Gordon 1.1.17
Captain M. V. Gore-Langton 6.9.15
Major H. W. Gough 1.1.15
Lieut.-Colonel E. B. Greer 22.6.15
Lieut. J. K. M. Greer Sept. 1916
Lieut. F. St. L. Greer 14.11.16
Captain D. W. Gunston 28.10.17
Lieut. C. E. Hammond 3.1.18
Captain L. R. Hargreaves 14.11.16
Captain H. A. V. St. G. Harmsworth 1.1.18
Lieut. S. S. Harrison 3.1.18
Lieut. E. M. Harvey 5.11.17
Lieut. D. J. Hegarty 10.1.19
Lieut. M. R. Hely-Hutchinson 5.6.17
Captain and Qr. H. Hickie 3.6.18
Lieut. A. E. Hutchinson 15.10.18
Captain A. C. W. Innes 10.3.15
Captain H. F. d’A. S. Law 5.6.17
Lieut. M. B. Levy 30.10.17
Major P. S. Long-Innes 14.11.16
Lieut. (Acting Lieut.-Col.) J. N. Marshall 7.11.18
Captain T. F. MacMahon 14.11.16
Lieut. T. Mathew 28.9.18
Lieut. D. A. B. Moodie 3.1.18
Captain C. J. O’Hara Moore 26.9.18
Captain W. C. Mumford 14.11.15
Lieut. L. D. Murphy 10.11.18
Lieut. E. L. Mylne 14.11.16
Captain T. E. G. Nugent 30.9.18
Captain A. R. S. Nutting 31.10.17
2nd Lieut. C. S. O’Brien 30.9.18
Captain Hon. H. B. O’Brien (Staff) 26.7.18
Captain Hon. P. J. H. Ogilvy 14.11.16
Lieut. Hon. B. A. A. Ogilvy 10.11.18
Captain A. W. L. Paget 15.10.18
Lieut. R. H. M. Park 5.11.17
Lieut. R. B. S. Reford 23.4.18
Captain R. E. Sassoon 20.8.17
Lieut. F. S. L. Smith 26.7.18
Lieut. F. P. H. Synge 3.6.16
Captain T. F. Tallents 3.6.16
Captain G. K. Thompson 15.3.16
Lieut. C. R. Tisdall 1916
Captain C. A. J. Vernon 10.11.18
Lieut. G. V. Williams 2.10.16
Capt. F. H. Witts 1.1.17
Captain Randal Woodhouse, R.A.M.C. (att. 1st Bn. I.G.) 31.5.16

CROIX DE GUERRE

Major Hon. C. A. S. Chichester (Staff) 16.5.19
Lieut. J. L. Lysaght 6.11.17
Major R. V. Pollok 28.12.17
Lieut.-Colonel T. E. Vesey 17.8.18
Captain R. G. C. Yerburgh (Staff) 21.8.19

EXTRACTS FROM LONDON _GAZETTE_

The compiler gives below as many of the accounts of acts of bravery
that won decoration, as he understands were published in the London
_Gazette_ on various dates. These are what were known as “immediate
rewards.” The details of services acknowledged by decorations which
did not come under this category were not given in the _Gazette_.

_10th March 1915._ M.C. to Second Lieutenant A. C. W. Innes, 1st Battalion, Irish Guards: “For conspicuous gallantry and ability at Cuinchy on 1st February 1915. When all the officers of the attacking company had been put out of action, this officer was sent forward to take command. Leading his men he captured the enemy’s post, and then advancing a further 60 yards captured another.”

_10th March 1915._ M.C. to Lieutenant R. St. J. Blacker-Douglass, late 1st Battalion, Irish Guards: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in continuing to lead an attack after he had been wounded. He was killed in this attack.”

_6th September 1915._ M.C. to Lieutenant (Temp. Captain) Montague Vernon Gore-Langton, 1st Battalion, Irish Guards: “For conspicuous gallantry on the night of 10th August 1915, at Cuinchy, when with an orderly and one bomber, he carried out a successful and daring reconnaissance. He crawled out across a crater and discovered another crater reaching to within a few yards of the enemy’s trenches. Here he was seen by a German on patrol, who came within 8 yards, when he was killed by the orderly. He still lay out, aided by Very’s pistol lights fired from his own trenches for the purpose; he examined carefully the whole of the enemy’s wire-entanglements and trenches hidden behind the craters.”

_31st May 1916._ M.C. to Temporary Captain Philip Randal Woodhouse, M.B., R.A.M.C. (attached 1st Battalion, Irish Guards): “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He tended the wounded under heavy shell-fire, and, though himself wounded, continued his work. On another occasion he went across the open under shell-fire to attend to the wounded.”

_24th June 1916._ M.C. to Lieutenant Charles Richard Tisdall, Special Reserve (attached 1st Battalion, Irish Guards): “For conspicuous gallantry. When on patrol with two men he discovered a strong enemy patrol, who evidently intended to rush an isolated post. With great determination he dispersed the enemy patrol with one of his men, after sending the other for reinforcements. His promptness in all probability saved the post.”

_20th October 1916._ D.S.O. to Captain the Hon. Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, M.C., 2nd Battalion, Irish Guards: “For conspicuous gallantry in action. He was the life and soul of the attack, and throughout the day led forward not only his own men but men of all regiments. He held the trenches gained in spite of heavy machine-gun fire.”

_11th May 1917._ M.C. to Lieutenant Edward Budd, Irish Guards, Special Reserve (attached 1st Battalion): “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He carried out a dangerous reconnaissance under very heavy fire, and brought back most valuable information. He has on many occasions done fine work.”

_8th January 1918._ D.S.O. to Lieutenant (Acting Captain) the Hon. William Sigismund Patrick Alexander, Irish Guards: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Whilst leading his company in an attack he came under heavy machine-gun fire from a concrete emplacement. He immediately led a successful attack through a gap in our barrage, and outflanked three gun positions, capturing three machine-guns and fourteen men. He then continued the attack, and seized his objective within the scheduled time, in spite of having to pass through our own barrage as well as that of the enemy. He set a splendid example of fearlessness and resource.”

Previous Next

Comments

The Irish Guards in the Great War, Volume 2 (of 2)Chapter IX: Part 9

0%36 min left in chapter