The fleet with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, after a long but uneventful voyage, arrived in Plymouth Sound in the evening of October 14, 1914. The British censorship had maintained such secrecy regarding their movements that the people of Plymouth and Devonport first learned that they had crossed the seas when the transports were in harbor. When the news spread through the neighborhood the townsfolk flocked to the waterside and with cheers and song welcomed the soldiers of the Dominion. This demonstration was repeated on a greater and more enthusiastic scale when the troops later disembarked and marched through the streets. Lieutenant General E. A. H. Alderson, C. B., was appointed to the command of the contingent, which soon after landing encamped on Salisbury Plain. Here the Canadians spent four miserable months of one of the rainiest seasons on record. They were most of the time under canvas, the roads became quagmires, they were miles from any considerable town, yet despite their discomforts they maintained a brave and cheerful spirit. King George, accompanied by Field Marshals Roberts and Kitchener, Sir George Perley, member of the Canadian Cabinet, and Sir Richard McBride, Prime Minister of British Columbia, visited the troops in November, 1914. The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, composed largely of soldiers who had seen war service, left for the front early in December, 1914, and joined the Twenty-seventh British Division. On February 4, 1915, a division composed of three infantry brigades, three artillery brigades, ammunition column, divisional engineers, divisional mounted troops, and divisional train left Salisbury Plain and sailed from Avonmouth, the last transport reaching St.-Nazaire, on the Bay of Biscay, in the second week of February, 1915. The 6th, 9th, 11th, 12th, and 17th Battalions remained in England as the base brigade of the division. Later these battalions were formed into the Canadian Training Depot, and afterward, with the coming of reenforcements, into the Canadian Training Division, under the command of Brigadier General J. C. MacDougall. The Canadians had a long journey of 350 miles after landing in France before they arrived at the front within the triangle of country between St.-Omer on the west, Ypres on the east, and Béthune to the south. At this time the entire British army in Europe was contained in this territory.