The war’s end on November 11th at 11 o’clock in the morning found the bulk of the 49th Division resting on its well-earned laurels in the neighbourhood of Douai. The Gunners, the Royal Engineers and the Pioneer Battalion went forward in the final stages of the advance, and the Artillery had the distinction of finishing at a point further east than any other Divisional Artillery engaged. The 62nd Division ended in the Valley of the Sambre. If we draw an irregular quadrilateral, dipping a bit on the southern side, with its north-west angle at Valenciennes, its south-west at Le Quesnoy, and its north-east and south-east angles at Mons and Maubeuge respectively, we shall be able to prick in the places of the Division’s stout advance between November 4th and 11th (Orsinval, Frasnoy, Obies, Hautmont, Louvroil: it is at this end that the line dips towards Avesnes), by the help of which, as Sir Douglas Haig wrote: ‘On the 9th November the enemy was in general retreat on the whole front of the British Armies. The fortress of Maubeuge was entered by the Guards Division, and the 62nd Division (Major-General Sir R. D. Whigham), while the Canadians were approaching Mons.’[139] [Illustration] And Mons, as we know, is the last word of the war on the Western front. On November 18th, 1918, the 62nd Division started to march to Germany, where it formed part of the British Army of Occupation in the Rhine Province of the Kingdom of Prussia. As a Division of the IXth Corps of the Second Army, it had the luck to come under the command of its former Divisional Commander, Lieut.-General Sir W. P. Braithwaite, K.C.B., then commanding that Corps, who, accordingly, saw the Pelican at last put down his foot on German soil. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES [1] This includes the 2nd and 3rd Lines. The last had recently been authorized for formation at, approximately, two-thirds of War Establishment. The Peace Establishment of the West Riding T.F. had been fixed for one Line only. [2] Introduction to _The Territorial Force_, by Harold Baker, M.A.: London, Murray, 1909. [3] See Appendix I. [4] The first Meeting of its Executive Committee was held on October 12th, 1908. [5] This letter was published in the Press on February 28th, 1913. [6] It is worth noting that the cost of the recommendations (including extra allowances to officers, efficiency bounties to other ranks, separation allowances during annual camp, insurance concessions, employers’ income-tax abatement, grant for boots, shirts and socks, but excluding the proposed grant for amenities) was estimated at £2,300,000 per annum. [7] Lieut.-Gen. Sir E. C. Bethune, K.C.B., of ‘Bethune’s Horse’; General Cowan’s successor as Director-General of the Territorial Force at the War Office, 1912-17, when he was succeeded by Lord Scarbrough. [8] See page 3. [9] _Ibid._ [10] Later, Colonel, and first Hon. Colonel of the Battalion. [11] These Colours were deposited in All Souls’ Church, Halifax, on April 3rd, 1910.