Before I pass from the doings of the Battalion on the Somme, it is necessary, in order to do justice to the narrative, to record the loss of one of the bravest and most capable officers of the Battalion and one who gave great promise as a fearless and resourceful fighter for high ideals. I refer to Lieut. L. H. Johnstone, who led the 25th Battalion in the fruitless and bloody attack on Regina Trench, October 1st, 1916. While gallantly leading those men into a veritable hell of machine gun and shell fire, the “Iron Duke,” as he was nicknamed by the gallant men he was leading, fell to rise no more. [Illustration: CAPT. L. H. JOHNSTONE.] [Illustration: MAJOR J. H. TUPPER.] [Illustration: LIEUT. CHAS. H. HOBKIRK.] [Illustration: LIEUT. C. E. HOWSON.] [Illustration: CAPT. FRASER CRAIG.] [Illustration: CAPT. W. E. E. DOANE.] When the Battalion finally moved from the Somme area to be reinforced and recuperated there were less than one hundred of the original crusaders who marched so gaily from Flanders less than one month previously. Though they had received a hard drubbing they made the old nickname of “Herring-choker” one to be respected as long as memory lives and histories are written. Theirs was not the attitude of the torn and mangled dog with its tail between its legs. With reinforcements, which arrived while the remnants of the Battalion rested a few days at Bertrincourt, near Albert, they were transported to Hersin, and immediately went into the line at Bully-Grenay, on the Lens Front, where, with a pugnacity which is typical of the breed, they stirred up a quiet sector until it became the most frequently raided and most heavily shelled of their experience. The first raid on this front, and one of the most successful, was the enterprise, on Christmas Eve, 1916, directed by Capt. W. A. Cameron and carried out by an officer and twenty men from each Company. The objective took in a point in the enemy lines known as the “Pope’s Nose,” owing to the peculiar twist in the trench which brought it to within fifteen yards of our line. Each party was successful in gaining entrance to the Hun trenches. In fact, two of the parties encountered no opposition, for Fritz had fled for cover. But the party from “D” Company, under Lieut. (now Capt.) W. A. Livingstone, found their objective strongly manned and the men were able to get in some splendid bayonet and Mills bomb work. They saved seven specimens of German Kultur to tell our Intelligence Staff what they knew about the situation on the other side of No Man’s Land. Captain Cameron, Lieutenants Livingstone and Morris received Military Crosses in recognition of their energy and personal gallantry in the above affair.