Christmas was celebrated with due honours. As was the general custom, the officers’ dinner was held on Christmas Eve and the sergeants’ dinner on Boxing Day, in order that Christmas Day itself might be wholly devoted to the men. A Rugby match between the officers and sergeants of the Battalion was played during the afternoon. The “form” of the officers was not very convincing; possibly this was the result of the festivities of the previous night. Altogether, the festive season passed very happily. A few days after Christmas the 147th Infantry Brigade gave a “treat” to the children of Auby, and never until then was it realised how many youngsters there were in the village. Indeed, it was suspected that many had come in specially from the neighbourhood. A cinematograph show in the afternoon was followed by a tea, after which a real Father Christmas--the Medical Officer’s store of cotton wool had been heavily drawn upon, and few would have recognised Sergt. E. Jones in the benevolent-looking old man--helped to hand out a present to each child. But the most striking event of the entertainment was the wonderful enthusiasm of the children as they joined in the singing when the band struck up the “Marseillaise.” Meanwhile, the Battalion had not been idle. Some work was carried out, trying to restore the damage done by the enemy in the district. Much of the country had been flooded and attempts were made to reduce the water, though without much success. Trenches were filled in, barbed wire entanglements were removed, and roads were improved. An area was allotted to the Battalion for salvage work, and a certain amount of useful material was collected. In connection with this work, a most unfortunate accident occurred early in December. During their removal to the salvage dump some trench mortar shells exploded, killing two men of A Company and wounding several more. About once a week one whole company moved into Douai, which was about four miles away, to provide guards at the station there for forty-eight hours.