It may, perhaps, be remarked that all the winners at this Sports Meeting mentioned in the Regimental Diary have survived the war—with the sad exception of Lieutenant R. Chalmers.

The only other incident of note during the training at Cauchy was the visit to the Division of the Bishop of London, who, according to the Regimental Diary, was touring the back areas. His Lordship preached to the 140th Brigade on the 29th of March, but the only comment that can be found is that “We had to wear our heavy packs and were kept waiting for some time.”

On the last day at Cauchy, the 6th of April, news was received of the first death in the Battalion on active service. Private W. E. Little of “D” Company, who had left the Battalion on the 4th, suffering from cerebro spinal meningitis, having died in hospital at St. Omer. Thus the 17th of March men had already lost one man before they reached the firing line.

CHAPTER II
GIVENCHY AND FESTUBERT

On the 7th of April the Battalion left for Bethune and the forward area. The villagers gave the men a very hearty send-off, for the Civil Service Rifles had thoroughly captured the hearts of all at Cauchy, who had done their best to fête their heroes overnight.

After sleepy Cauchy, Bethune was voted top hole. The shops in the old town were quite Parisian, and every one indulged in dainty but unsatisfying gateaux and steaming bowls of hot chocolate. For the bon viveurs there were excellent dinners in the ancient Hotel du Nord; for the artistic the delicate traceries in the fine old church.

Bethune already showed some scars of the war, and the building in which the Battalion was housed, Le College des Jeunes Filles, had lost most of its windows, but otherwise it made a comfortable billet. Here Lieutenant A. Roberts arrived with thirty other ranks from the Base—evidently O.C. Reinforcements thought it was high time the Civil Service Rifles suffered some casualties. On the following day the Civil Service Rifles made its first acquaintance with the trenches. “A” and “B” Companies were detailed for working parties in support trenches, while to “D” Company fell the honour of being the first Civil Service Rifle Company to go into the front line. It was the good fortune of the Battalion to be initiated in the mysteries of trench warfare by the 4th (Guards) Brigade, and the arrangement was that each Company should go in for twenty-four hours “under instruction” before the battalion held a section of the line alone. “D” Company accordingly joined the 2nd Coldstream and survived their twenty-four hours without loss, but the first battle casualties in the Battalion were suffered by “B” Company, who, with “A” Company, were returning from their working party at Cuinchy, when Privates W. Bartram and H. H. Russell were wounded by a rifle bullet, which passed through the thigh of one man and hit the calf of the other. It is said that the wounded men were deeply concerned on two accounts—they had seen no Germans either alive or dead, and it was pay day and they had not drawn their pay!

There is no doubt that this first visit to the front line was productive of a sense of disappointment. War had, till then, been regarded as a glorious thing, a thing of bugles and flashing bayonets, of courage in hand-to-hand encounters, and above all, of excitement. But this first experience showed it to be a thing of drab monotony, of dull routine, of the avoidance of being killed, of an invisible enemy. And so the letters of these days, which were to have been of enthralling interest, were, instead, just catalogues of the minor duties and details of trench life. Among them, however, is one that cannot but prove of subtle humour to the infantryman of later years—1916 and onwards. An extract is here reproduced.

“You should see the R.E. out in front mending the barbed wire—and when a flare goes up, dropping instantly and looking like sandbags, to be up and working like mad as soon as darkness ensues again—cool beggars they are—odd bullets flying all the time.”

On the other hand, R. W. Softly’s account of the first journey up to the line would not make the soldier of 1918 envy the man of 1915:—