G.O.C. Major-(Lieut.-) General (Sir) W. P. Braithwaite, (K.) C.B. A.D.C. Lieut. G. H. Roberts. A.D.C. Sec.-Lieut. J. C. Newman. G.S.O. (I.) Lieut.-Col. Hon. A. G. A. Hore-Ruthven, V.C., D.S.O., Welsh Guards. G.S.O. (II.) Major W. G. Charles, Essex. G.S.O. (III.) Capt. J. A. Batten Pooll, 5th Lancers. A.A. and Q.M.G. Lieut.-Col. T. M. Foot, C.M.G., R.L., late R. Innis. Fus. D.A.A. and Q.M.G. Major H. F. Lea, R.L., late Yorks. Regt. D.A.Q.M.G. Capt. F. J. Langdon, R.L., late The King’s. A.D.M.S. Col. de B. Birch, C.B., R.A.M.C. (T). D.A.D.M.S. Major T. C. Lucas, R.A.M.C. D.A.D.O.S. Lieut. R. M. Holland. A.D.V.S. Major F. J. Taylor. A.P.M. Major G. D’Urban Rodwell. C.R.A. Brig.-Gen. A. T. Anderson, R.A. A.D.C. Lieut. Anderson, R.A. Bde. Major Capt. W. G. Lindsell, R.A. S./Capt. Capt. A. J. Elston. C.R.E. Lieut.-Col. F. Gillam, R.E. Adjt. Capt. G. D. Aspland. 185TH INF. BDE. G.O.C. Brig.-Gen. V. W. de Falbe, C.M.G., D.S.O. Bde. Major Major R. E. Power, The Buffs. S./Capt. Capt. W. A. C. Lloyd. 186TH INF. BDE. G.O.C. Brig.-Gen. F. F. Hill, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. Bde. Major Major C. A. H. Palairet, The Fusileers. S./Capt. Capt. W. O. Wright. 187TH INF. BDE. G.O.C. Brig.-Gen. R. O’B. Taylor, C.I.E. Bde. Major Major R. B. Bergne, Leinster Regt. S./Capt. Capt. F. M. Lassetter. CHAPTER VII I.—PREPARATIONS ON THE SOMME We return from the 62nd Division in England to the 49th in France, in the same year, 1916. The battles of the Somme were fought mid the pleasant, folded hills of Picardy, where the Sussex Weald almost seems to have crossed the Channel into France, and Spring renews every year the glad tokens of that poets’ May, when the sons of Champagne and Picardy, between the valleys of the Marne and the Somme, made France splendid in history as the mother of fable and romance: classic soil, a French writer tells us, ‘entre Orléans, Rouen, Arras et Troyes, en pleine terre française, champenoise et picarde, dans toutes ces bonnes villes et villages.’[48]