Those days will never return. Between us at the base and our enemies are a myriad valiant lives and countless guns of every size and device, a force, in fact, which no German strategy in the world, scrupulous or unscrupulous, can overcome; and still the little temporary British city grows and grows, a city of tents and red crosses and corrugated iron huts; and still stalwart British forms, marching along the winding white roads, cast longing glances at the dim coast of distant Albion. But it is not for those who heard the call in the later months so much as in memory of those early heroes of Mons, who knew the bitterness of a valiant retreat, the horror of forced marches along parched roads, with only the prod of the next man's bayonet to keep him awake, and only a flap cut from the tail of his shirt between the pitiless sun and the dreaded delirium that would leave him a prey to the Huns' barbarities; in memory of these it is that I take up the pen to run the gauntlet of a thousand critical eyes on a way fraught with difficulties. My acknowledgments are due to Mr. A. M. James for permission to use his photograph of the cemetery, and to my brother Edgar, whose patience in putting together what is of necessity a piecy document has made the publication of this diary possible. "_No easy hopes or lies Shall bring us to our goal, But iron sacrifice Of body, will, and soul. There is but one task for all-- For each one life to give; Who stands if freedom fall? Who dies if England live?_" --RUDYARD KIPLING. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION BY MAJOR-GENERAL SIR ALFRED TURNER, K.C.B. XV BOOK I 1914--As It Was in the Beginning CHAPTER 1. OCTOBER, 1914 3 2. NOVEMBER, 1914 40 3. DECEMBER, 1914 68 BOOK II 1915--Order Out of Chaos 4. JANUARY, 1915 89 5. FEBRUARY, 1915 103 6. MARCH, 1915 112 7. APRIL, 1915 124 8. MAY, 1915 136 9. JUNE, 1915 146 10. JULY, 1915 160 11. AUGUST, 1915 171 12. SEPTEMBER, 1915 179 13. OCTOBER, 1915 188 14. NOVEMBER, 1915 202 15. DECEMBER, 1915 211 BOOK III 1916--Scrapped 16. JANUARY, 1916 225 17. FEBRUARY, 1916 240 EPILOGUE 259 LIST OF PLATES GOING ON DUTY AFTER A REST _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE A HOSPITAL SHIP 16 AT AN IMPROVISED CASUALTY CLEARING STATION 28 A WARD IN THE SUGAR-SHED CLEARING STATION 32 EXTEMPORISED OPERATING THEATRE AT A CLEARING STATION 42 "THE REVERED CALVARY TO WHICH ALL WISE FISHERMEN PRAY" 56 LORD ROBERTS'S FUNERAL: THE SCENE ON THE QUAY 64 AMBULANCES HELD UP BY THE HIGH TIDE 66 A MEAL AT THE INDIAN CAMP 80