Early in October, 1903, the 2nd Battalion at length heard the good news that the date of their departure from Aden had been definitely fixed, and on the 23rd of the month it sailed in the s.s. _Soudan_, arriving at Queenstown late in the evening of November 9th. The tour of foreign service had lasted for twenty years all but two months, and only one man in the whole battalion had seen it through from start to finish without coming home, the present quartermaster, Lieutenant J. Burke. The 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers left England for Gibraltar on January 9th, 1884, and in February, 1885, proceeded to Egypt, where it was quartered first at Ramleh, and later on at Cairo. Early in 1886 the battalion went to India, headquarters being stationed successively at Poona, Nasirabad, Karachi, Quetta, and Bombay. In May, 1897, it was suddenly ordered to South Africa, and quartered at Maritzburg, as already stated in the opening chapter. The details were at Buttevant, County Cork, and thither the battalion proceeded on their arrival in Ireland. Just two days prior to the arrival home of the 2nd Battalion the regiment had been honoured by having appointed as its Colonel-in-Chief Field-Marshal H.R.H. A. W. S. A. Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, K.G., K.P., K.T., G.C.B., G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E., G.C.V.O. On November 13th, 1903, the battalion proceeded to Dublin to attend a public reception and also to receive their medals at the hands of H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught. The following is the account of the proceedings as published in the _Irish Times_ of November 14th, 1903, to whom the thanks of the regiment are due for their kindness in permitting its reproduction:-- (_Extract from 'Irish Times,' Saturday, November 14th, 1903._) HOME-COMING OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS.