The stand on the 9th checked the enemy for a time, and all batteries were able to take up less exposed positions. They suffered, however, from a continuous bombardment, and on the 12th the heroic commander of the 73rd was killed by a shell. He had left the doctor’s hands when a severe burst of German fire began, and had hurried forward to see to his guns. No officer in the British Army had a finer record for gallantry and devotion to duty. His Battery was known everywhere on the front as “Brydon’s Battery,” and he was beloved by his men, for his only thought was for them. During the 9th, though wounded himself, he helped to dress the other wounded, and when the men at the guns began to show signs of exhaustion, he himself dealt out rum to them. Finally he went through a downpour of shells to find a doctor and more dressings. It was one of the many ironies of the war that he never received the Victoria Cross, for he won it a dozen times. Let his epitaph be the words of a gunner in his Battery, who had served with him only a few weeks, and who on the 9th had his arms and legs shot away. Major Brydon stopped and asked if he could do anything for him. The dying man raised himself on his stumps. “By God, Brydon,” he cried, “you are a man. I’m only good for the parson now, but I’m proud to die under you.” The 18th of April saw another severe bombardment, when five officers of the 73rd Battery were gassed—Captain P. A. M. Hands, the second in command, and Second-Lieutenants Maasdorp and Brown dying of the effects. This meant a loss to the Brigade, since the 9th, of five officers dead. The expenditure of ammunition during that period had been enormous: the 71st Battery, for example, fired 11,000 rounds. The Brigade remained on the same front till the 27th June, when it was brought out to rest. On the 27th July Lieutenant-Colonel Blew relinquished his command, being succeeded temporarily by Major E. H. Tamplin, who, on 17th August, handed over to Lieutenant-Colonel G. M. Bennett, formerly commanding the 74th Battery.