FRANCIS WOODBINE PARISH, 1915
Captain, King’s Royal Rifle Corps; Adjutant, Prince of Wales’s Own Civil Service Rifles.
His wound, sustained in action on the Western front, was a contributory cause of his death in 1921.
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CHAPTER XVI
THE RENAISSANCE
Among the prominent events which may be regarded as landmarks or milestones in the career of the Civil Service Rifles in France, two have already been passed—Vimy Ridge and High Wood. The third milestone was one of a different character, but the arrival of Lieut.-Colonel F. W. Parish, M.C., to take command most certainly marked the beginning of a new phase in the life of the Battalion. As the pre-war Adjutant, Captain Parish had played a great part in the training of the Civil Service Rifles for war, and all who knew him at the time will remember his keenness. He left the Battalion at the end of October, 1915, to be G.S.O. III of the 19th Division, and afterwards took command of one of the Service Battalions of the North Staffords, with whom he was severely wounded in the Somme Battle of 1916.
It was soon found that he had lost none of his enthusiasm for the Civil Service Rifles, and although a great many changes had taken place since he left, there were still a good many who remembered him, and as he walked along the trenches in Bois Confluent, near St. Eloi, on the 9th of July, he could not mistake the welcome that was shown to him in the faces of all his old friends. The Battalion, sad to relate, had become somewhat stale and had a tired look, and the new Commanding Officer supplied just the touch of renewed vigour which had been lacking of late. He took the earliest opportunity to tell the troops that he was glad to see them all, but that they were not quite the Battalion of old, and he would not be content until they were. He said they were not as clean as they might be, and although they had fought well, they were not so smart, and their discipline was not so good as it should be. All these things, he said, must be put right, and, as there was no time like the present, he put his preaching into practice right away in the support positions in Bois Confluent.
There followed such a craze for cleaning up clothing and equipment as had not been known for many months, and all ranks entered into the new spirit with enthusiasm. Ten rough days in front line trenches around the gates of the White Château grounds on the Hollebeke Road, where the Germans shelled all day and every day, and where one side or the other carried out a raid nearly every night, ended in the Battalion being relieved on the night of the 24th of June by the 18th King’s Royal Rifles, and moving to Carnarvon Camp, near Westoutre, one of the most uncomfortable camps occupied by the Civil Service Rifles during the war.
After one day’s rest the work of “restoration” was resumed, and vigorous “spit and polish” was indulged in for three days before the Commanding Officer inspected the Battalion. In a breezy speech he said he could already see a distinct improvement, and he felt sure a further improvement would follow.
On the 30th of July the Civil Service Rifles became the envied of all the other units in the Division as they marched to Wippenhoek Siding near Abeele, and entrained for St. Omer, whence a short march brought them to Tatinghem. Here the Battalion was to carry out a training programme, consisting chiefly of musketry on the 2nd Army ranges near Moulle.