APPENDIX VIII
DIVISIONAL INSTITUTES AND CANTEENS
Canteens were instituted in the Ninth Division during September 1915 because of the exorbitant prices charged to soldiers by the private owners of cafés and estaminets. The difficult work of organisation was carried out by Captain, now Major J. R. King, D.S.O., and he was ably assisted by Padre J. Johnston, Presbyterian Chaplain. Two caravans, kindly sent out by some friends at home, and named “Rob Roy” and “Wee Macgregor,” were well known to all who served with the Ninth; they traversed the front line many times from the sea to the Somme, and “Jock” was always delighted to see them, for they meant hot coffee and a packet of biscuits or cigarettes. When at the beginning of 1918 Major King was transferred to the 46th Reserve Park, the control of the Canteen arrangements devolved principally upon Captain Carmichael. The duties of the O.C. Canteens were by no means light, as the annual overturn amounted to more than a million francs.
Another venture taken up by the Canteen department was the establishment of a Soda-Water Factory. This factory not only swelled the divisional funds but was an inestimable boon to the men, who were provided with an excellent beverage at very small cost.
Some of the profits were devoted to the purchase of a divisional cinema at the beginning of 1916, and all kinds of places behind the lines—a pantechnicon waggon, barns, wall of houses in the open air, sheets under trees by the roadside—were used for performances; it is needless to mention that the film most in request from one end of the line to the other was “Charlie Chaplin.”
During the German offensive in 1918 some of the divisional treasures were lost. The cinema and “Wee Macgregor” had to be abandoned. The soda-water plant was saved by Major King who, moving back with his transport, remembered his old division in its trouble, seized the plant at Péronne, and in spite of all obstacles got it safely away.
The Canteens carried on to the end, and after the Armistice were the only places where the troops could procure supplies.
With the development of the Canteens there arose demands for all sorts of specialists, such as cinema operators, grocers, law assistants, etc., and “Q” often asked brigades to furnish them. On one occasion a brigade which as a rule took no notice of these requests, sent in the following reply: “We regret we have no grocer specialist, soda-water specialist, or law specialist in our ranks, but we have a contortionist, if his services could be made use of.” But “Q” scored (whether consciously or not is a matter of doubt) by wiring, “Please tell contortionist to report at H.Q. at once for duty with the Concert Party.” This unexpected demand nonplussed the brigade, which after deliberation concocted the following reply: “Regret contortionist became a casualty last evening and is being evacuated.”