The First Canadians in France: The Chronicle of a Military Hospital in the War ZoneBell, F. McKelvey (Frederick McKelvey)
History
The First Canadians in France: The Chronicle of a Military Hospital in the War Zone
Bell, F. McKelvey (Frederick McKelvey)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals -- France; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
We had scarce dropped anchor when, from the training ship close by, a
yawl pulled quickly toward us, "manned" by a dozen or more lads from a
training ship. They rowed with the quick neat stroke of trained
athletes, and as the boat came alongside ours they shipped their oars
and raised their boyish voices in a welcoming cheer. We leaned over the
side of our ship and returned their greeting with a stentorian
heartiness that startled the sleeping town.
Showers of small coin and cigarettes were dropped into their boat, and
the way in which they fought for position, scrambling over or under one
another, upsetting this one or knocking down that, showed that these
lads were quite capable of upholding all the old fighting traditions of
the British Navy. A tug-boat soon steamed alongside, too, and down the
accommodation-ladder scrambled those of us who were lucky enough to have
permission to go ashore.
"Come along, Reggy," I shouted. But Reggy shook his head sorrowfully,
and his handsome face was clouded.
"Just my rotten luck to be orderly officer on a day like this!" he
replied. "To-day I guard the ship, but to-morrow—oh, to-morrow!" Reggy
held out both hands in mock appeal to the shore: "Me for the red paint
and city lights!"
Progress up the streets of Devonport was slow. Thousands of troops
already landed were marching to the time of "The Maple Leaf Forever,"
and every foot of pavement or sidewalk was packed with struggling but
enthusiastic humanity shouting itself hoarse in delirious welcome.
We were on the upper deck of a tram-car, leaning over the throng, and
eagerly looking for the faces of friends in the ranks of a passing
battalion. They swung along to the music of their band—a clean-cut,
well-set-up, manly lot, who marched with the firm independent step of
the free born. Suddenly our colonel discovered a familiar face among the
khaki-clad below. There is no military precedent for what he did; years
of training fell away on the instant. He leaned from the car and
shouted:
"Hello, ’Foghorn’! What cheer?"
"Foghorn" looked up. His right arm was somewhat hampered, from a
military point of view, by reason of being about the waist of a pretty
girl, who accommodatingly marched along with the battalion in general,
and "Foghorn" in particular.
"Hello, Jack," he bellowed in a voice which easily accounted for his
nickname. "Lots of cheer. Can’t salute. One arm busy! Other is glass
arm from saluting the brass hats. See you later. Good luck!"
And thus our cosmopolitan and ultra-democratic battalion passed on.
Some one has said that the Englishman is temperamentally cold. It can’t
be proved by Devonport or Plymouth. His temperature in both towns
registered ninety-eight degrees in the shadiest and most secluded spots.
And the women and children! Banish all thought of British frigidity!
The Canadians in England never discovered it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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