“But ye’ll understand, when everything was said and done, there was nothing _real_ to it at all, except when we got to talking and passing round the names of them we wished was with us. We was lonely in those days. The half of us was Church of England by then, too. But we were lonely, ye’ll understand, as units. And our billets, mind ye, ma-agnificent, with walls and lockers and doors and all. The same for the officers! And there was Mr. ---- that I’d known well any time these last two winters, freezing and swearing alongside of me in any shell-hole we could find, and glad to be out of the wind--and now, him cursin’ in his quarters because he had not the Jerry-talk for the German for: ‘Turn off that dam’ steam-heat!’ And that’s war _al_so. “But ye might tell that we was lonely, most of all. Before God, we Micks was lonely!” COMMANDING OFFICERS 1st BATTALION FROM AUGUST 12, 1914 -----------+---------------------------------+-------------+---------- Rank | Name | From B.E.F. | To -----------+---------------------------------+-------------+---------- Lt.-Col. | Hon. G. H. Morris | 12.8.14 | 1.9.14 Major | H. H. Stepney | 2.9.14 | 17.9.14 Lt.-Col. | Lord Ardee, C.B.E. | 18.9.14 | 3.11.14 “ (temp.) | Hon. J. F. Trefusis, D.S.O. | 4.11.14 | 15.8.15 “ “ | G. H. C. Madden | 16.8.15 | 1.11.15 “ “ | R. C. A. McCalmont, D.S.O. | 2.11.15 | 2.3.17 “ (actg.) | H. R. Alexander, D.S.O., M.C. | 3.3.17 | 23.5.17 “ “ | C. E. Rocke, D.S.O. | 24.5.17 | 11.7.17 “ “ | R. V. Pollok, C.B.E., D.S.O. | 12.7.17 | 19.6.18 “ “ | R. R. C. Baggally, D.S.O., M.C. | 20.6.18 | To return | | |to England. -----------+---------------------------------+-------------+----------- END OF VOL. I FOOTNOTES: [1] About this time, on a distant flank of the war, there was a very young French Lieutenant of Artillery who, in his first action, when evening came, telephoned to his superior officer as to dispositions for the night, in the sincere belief that, following the custom of all wars up to date, the guns would stop as the darkness closed. His answer was: “This will be a war in which no one ever goes to bed.” [2] “ ... and the next time I saw Zillebeke it was a deserted ruin, and the small house whose inmates had been so kind to my subalterns and me was a heap of debris.”--_Extract from a Company Commander’s Diary._