The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918, Vol. 1 of 3Ponsonby, Frederick
History
The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918, Vol. 1 of 3
Ponsonby, Frederick
Great Britain. Army. Grenadier Guards; World War, 1914-1918 -- Regimental histories -- Great Britain
Lieut.-Colonel M. Earle, D.S.O., Commanding Officer.
Major H. St. L. Stucley, Second in Command.
Lieut. Lord Claud N. Hamilton, Machine-gun Officer.
Capt. G. E. C. Rasch, Adjutant.
Lieut. J. Teece, Quartermaster.
Major the Hon. A. O. W. C. Weld-Forester, M.V.O., King's Company.
Captain the Hon. L. P. Cary (Master of Falkland), King's Company.
Lieut. W. S. Pilcher, King's Company.
Lieut. H. L. Aubrey-Fletcher, M.V.O., King's Company.
Lieut. J. H. Powell, King's Company.
2nd Lieut. R. O. R. Kenyon-Slaney, King's Company.
Captain the Hon. C. M. B. Ponsonby, M.V.O., No. 2 Company.
Capt. G. C. G. Moss, No. 2 Company.
Lieut. G. E. Hope, Signalling Officer.
Lieut. T. E. R. Symons, No. 2 Company.
2nd Lieut. R. S. Lambert, No. 2 Company.
2nd Lieut. M. A. A. Darby, No. 2 Company.
Capt. Lord Richard Wellesley, No. 3 Company.
Capt. G. Rennie, No. 3 Company.
Lieutenant the Hon. A. G. S. Douglas-Pennant, No. 3 Company.
Lieut. P. Van Neck, No. 3 Company.
Lieut. L. G. Ames, No. 3 Company.
2nd Lieut. W. R. Mackenzie, Transport Officer.
Major L. R. V. Colby, No. 4 Company.
Capt. R. E. K. Leatham, No. 4 Company.
Lieut. E. Antrobus, No. 4 Company.
2nd Lieut. S. Walter, No. 4 Company.
2nd Lieut. N. A. H. Somerset, No. 4 Company.
2nd Lieut. Sir G. Duckworth-King, Bart., No. 4 Company.
_Attached_--Lieut. J. G. Butt, R.A.M.C.
The crossing was made in the S.S. _Armenian_, which was fairly
comfortable, and the _Turcoman_, just a cattle-boat, with no
accommodation at all. The transports did not move out into the Solent
till after dark on the 5th, and reached Zeebrugge at six o'clock on the
morning of the 7th. Disembarking was none too easy a task, for the jetty
was much too small for ships of that size, and there were no cranes or
other appliances for unshipping the horses, which just had to be pushed
down gangways.
[Sidenote: Oct. 7.]
Entreaties were made to General Capper by a Belgian colonel and two
Staff officers, who had come as a deputation from Antwerp, that he would
bring the whole of the Seventh Division into that city. But Sir Henry
Rawlinson had already sent orders for the Division to go to Bruges at
once. The 1st Battalion Grenadiers made the journey in two trains, and
was billeted in the suburb of St. André. Crowds lined the streets, and
cheered each battalion lustily as it arrived. All the billeting was
arranged without any difficulty, as the Belgian authorities knew to a
man how many troops each village would hold.
That evening there was a "procession of humiliation" through the streets
of Bruges, a long train of old men and women following in the wake of
the priests, who were headed by acolytes swinging their censers. As they
walked slowly through the streets, chanting a litany, they made an odd
contrast with the masses of fighting men in khaki, and their array of
wagons and guns.
[Sidenote: Oct. 8.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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