THE STORY OF THE MUNSTERS THE STORY OF THE MUNSTERS AT ETREUX, FESTUBERT, RUE DU BOIS AND HULLOCH BY MRS. VICTOR RICKARD AUTHOR OF "DREGS," "THE LIGHT ABOVE THE CROSSROADS," "THE FRANTIC BOAST," "THE FIRE OF GREEN BOUGHS" _WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY_ LORD DUNRAVEN _Honorary Colonel, 5th Royal Munster Fusiliers_ HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MCMXVIII DEDICATED TO VICTOR RICKARD AND HIS COMRADES IN ALL RANKS OF THE MUNSTER FUSILIERS, WHO FOUGHT AND FELL IN THE GREAT WAR, 1914-15 * * * * * "One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep to wake." * * * * * The shamrock, which forms part of the cap badge of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, was first introduced, in February 1915, by Lieut.-Colonel Rickard, in the Second Battalion, with the object of giving a distinctively Irish emblem to all ranks of the Regiment. It is now worn by all the battalions of the Munsters. PREFACE I should like to express my thanks to the officers of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and also to the friends and relatives who have helped me to collect and arrange this book. In the following accounts of the engagements of Etreux, Festubert, Rue du Bois and Hulloch, I do not wish in any sense to appear as an historian; that task awaits far abler and more qualified hands. What follows has been threaded together as a little tribute to the men who gave their lives for an Ideal, and who were brave soldiers in the Great War.