From Sandhurst I had passed on to Afghanistan in 1879 and had served under that grand soldier Lord Roberts. The Indian Frontiers from the North-West to Burmah were all familiar to me. I had shared the bivouac and the camp for thirty-six years with my brave and loyal Indian troops, on Afghan hills and in the dense jungles of the Irriwaddy and Chindwin, in Munipoor in the far North-East of India, in Ashanti and blood-stained Kumassi in distant West Africa. I had sheltered with them in the living squares of man and beast in the deserts of the Soudan, and now I was about to participate in their trials on the plains of Flanders. It had been my good fortune to command brigades and divisions in peace, and twice to be in chief command of expeditions on the North-West Frontier in 1908; and finally the Northern Army of India for four years. Dull indeed must be the man who with all this experience did not know the Indian soldier, did not appreciate his great worth, or recognise his limits. I never joined the Indian Army, but did all my regimental duty with an Irish Corps, the 1st Battalion Leinster Regiment. To Irish soldiers I owe much; from them I first imbibed that spirit of camaraderie which is worth more in war than all book discipline; the spirit which recognises common sense to be one of the greatest of gifts, and which willingly renders loyal service, so long as no attempt is made to exact it by misplaced force. The Irish soldier is unsurpassed in the field, but you must trust him as an Irishman. He has a right to a distinct nationality, and is justly proud of it. No man could serve with cheerier, better comrades than the 1st and 2nd Connaught Rangers, which belonged to my Army Corps in France; but of them more anon. A word more as to myself; for in writing of Indian troops it is absolutely necessary that a man should thoroughly understand his subject, or his story would be worthless. I need only say that their religion, habits, castes, and language (Hindustani, the lingua franca of India) are as familiar to me as my own religion and language, and that from long and sometimes perhaps weary toil I had acquired a knowledge of many of the dialects of the Native Army. Thus equipped I found myself the fortunate commander of an Indian Army Corps, for the first time in history to be employed in Europe.