Produced by David Clarke, Nicola Kerrison, Christine P. Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) HISTORY OF 1/8th BATTALION SHERWOOD FORESTERS 1914--1919 [Illustration: LIEUT.-COL. G. H. FOWLER. Killed in action at Hohenzollern Redoubt, Oct. 15th, 1915.] [Illustration: Arms] THE SHERWOOD FORESTERS IN THE GREAT WAR 1914--1919 1/8th BATTALION By CAPTAIN W. C. C. WEETMAN M.C., CROIX DE GUERRE With an introduction by BRIG-GENERAL C. T. SHIPLEY, C.B. NOTTINGHAM THOS. FORMAN & SONS 1920 _To_ _Our Fallen Comrades_ "_In truth they were young Gentlemen, Yeomen and Yeomen's Sons, and Artificers of the most brave sort, such as went voluntarily to serve of a gaiety and joyalty of mind: all which kind of people are the Flower and Force of a Kingdom._" Sir John Smyth To Lord Burleigh On Our Men In Flanders IN 1589-90. INTRODUCTION It is not only a great honour to have been asked to write an introduction to this book, but it is a real pleasure to me to be linked in this manner to a Battalion with which I was so intimately connected for nearly six years and in which I made so many friends, of whom many, alas, have passed the "great divide." The Battalion has been lucky in finding in Capt. Weetman an author with such a ready and amusing pen, and one especially who was in a position to see the workings of the Battalion in almost every phase of its career and from every standpoint, first as a Company Officer, then as Adjutant and finally from Brigade Headquarters. To me, perhaps naturally, the most interesting part of the book is the early chapters. From the time, in 1911, when I took over the command of what, I was informed by a Staff Officer qualified to know, was the best Territorial Brigade in the Kingdom, I was a firm believer in the Territorial Force. But I hardly think that the most hardened optimist would at that time have thought it possible for a Territorial Division to mobilise and march complete with equipment and Transport to its Mobilisation area on the sixth day after receiving the order "Mobilise." The amount of work done by Battalions and Companies was marvellous and only those who experienced it can have an idea of what it meant.