On November 21st the Division organized a concentration march and billeting scheme for our Brigade, involving a march of some eight miles to Chertsey. Coming as this did only two days before the final of the Divisional Route Marching Competition it was rather a severe handicap. However, on November 24th the whole battalion (except about half a dozen men required to guard our quarters), accompanied by a full regimental transport, set off on a fifteen mile march, which was to be done in five hours. Marks were given for accurate timing in passing the starting and finishing posts, for appearance of the men at the end of the march, for march discipline, and for correct contents of vehicles and packs. Hidden judges watched us at different parts of the march; others checked our halts, ten minutes every hour; and the contents of one platoon's packs were duly examined. The battalion marched magnificently, and although a cooker horse dropped a shoe and had to be shod by the cold shoer and regain the column without trotting, and although during the latter part of the march the road was inches deep in sand along a steep gradient, the last vehicle was clear of the finishing point with five seconds to spare. Our casualties were only two or three men, and but for the concentration march would never have occurred. After some discussion over the case of another battalion, who, contrary to the rules of the competition, had marched all the way headed by a band who did not wear packs, we were declared the winners, which we should have been in any case had we not forfeited a large number of points. We lost these because one man had no boot-laces in his pack; he remembered afterwards that they were in his pocket after all; and another man was also apparently deficient of some small article of kit. However, the battalion had every reason to be proud of itself, and the result certainly served to remind the Divisional Headquarters that other battalions existed besides the two Brigades in their close vicinity at Blackdown. "B" Company trained for the bayonet fighting, and, under Captain Moon, put up a display on November 29th, before the Chief Instructor of the London District School, which astonished him, and in due course they were declared the winners. "D" Company, under Captain Parker, also produced a splendid exhibition of physical training, and were proclaimed joint winners with the company of another battalion. In these last two competitions Company Sergeant-Major-Instructor McLelland, A.G.S., deserved the very greatest credit; he had been indefatigable in his exertions, and his methods proved most efficient. For the continued successes of the battalion we were awarded a richly deserved twenty-four hours off parade.