5. Quartermaster's Department.—The comprehensive activities of the Quartermaster and his staff would, if adequately dealt with, require a volume in themselves. A few notes on some aspects of their work will only be given.
In England the principal task was, first, to obtain equipment, and, secondly, to account for deficiencies. These difficulties rested in the able hands of Lieutenant Barnett and, latterly, Lieutenant Sutherland. Overseas the responsibilities of an efficient Quartermaster widen out indefinitely. The provision of rations and equipment, no small work in itself, is obviously his main concern; but, apart from that, a zealous Quartermaster regards himself as responsible for everything that conduces to the comfort and welfare of his battalion. He arranges for billets and baths; he acts as commission agent for all kinds of purchases for messes and individuals; he looks after the postal arrangements, obtains money from the field cashier, drinks, cigarettes, and so forth from the Expeditionary Force Canteen; he mends your boots and clothes; he "scrounges" tar felting and oil silk—in a word, he represents to the battalion all the resources of a town, with its shops and its general conveniences of civilization. Lieutenant Sutherland's services to the battalion were beyond all reckoning. He literally slaved day and night to ensure that no battalion was better fed, better clothed, better equipped, and generally better looked after than ours. Captain Smith, who later became Quartermaster, followed in the same tradition, and it is doubtful if we were ever in lack of anything that we seriously wanted. In this work it will be realized that the Quartermaster must have received the whole-hearted support of his staff. Wallas, Heyworth, Cousins, and Benson each in their turn proved most able Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeants. They further controlled an expert staff, each in their different periods supremely efficient in their own particular line—Blackburn, rations; Cooper, coal (he could always "win" an extra hundredweight); Yates, ordnance stores; Handley, mobilization stores; Kessen as a cheese-cutter; and Corporal Bell as understudy to the Regimental Quartermaster-Sergeant; and there were many others who at varying times had their place in "Q" Department. For bootmaking, we had first Sergeant Mottram and later Sergeant Cox, a powerful representative of the 1st King's, who was as fine a boxer as bootmaker. For tailoring, we had originally Sergeant Jewers, and then Greenham, under whom worked an efficient band with strange Russian names.
Another most important branch was represented by the cooks, a most hard-working and efficient body of men, who proved their worth again and again, not only in the ordered cook-houses of England and the better billets of France, but still more in the rough and shelled shanties in the line, in the crude trench fires during a battle, or with their field kitchens on the march. Under Sergeant Lane, who had a curious passion for strolling in No Man's Land at night, and later under Sergeant Austin, the cooks attained a high degree of excellence; and in spite of the dwindling scale of rations and of the curious articles of food which used to be issued "in lieu of" ordinary items which the war had made scarce, they provided, in spite of their predilection for stew, a diet of which no one, however fastidious, could seriously complain. Rifleman Anderson probably enjoys the record for length of service as a cook, while Rifleman Frith earned the title of "Rissole King."
In this connection one cannot pass over without mention the self-sacrificing service of the men who went on the nightly pilgrimage of the trenches, carrying the awkward and weighty burden of "hot food containers." As you met them struggling in the dark along the narrow and tortuous ways, now stopping to pass beneath an overhead traverse, now forcing their way through a trench whose sides were almost closed in, you could not but admire the persistence and energy which these men exhibited, and on which the chances of hot tea or hot soup for the front line posts entirely depended.
Of the Pioneers mention has already been made in the narrative of the book. Prior to the formation of the Pioneer Platoon the original establishment of battalion pioneers worked as efficiently and energetically for their limited numbers as their more numerous party did under the later organization.
Two other duties connected with "the Stores" are deserving of mention. The Canteen Corporals—Corporal Hobden for the greater period of our service abroad, and at the latter part Corporal Trapnell—carried out a difficult and arduous task with great ability. Long tramps to distant canteens, and uncomfortable quarters in the line in which to exhibit their wares, constituted their life. The difficulty of reconciling the strict rationing enforced by the Expeditionary Force Canteen with the demands of the battalion made their office no sinecure.
The other duty referred to is that of Post Corporal, the leading exponent being Lance-Corporal A. L. Reade. Endless walking to distant Field Post Offices, long waits for the mail, a long trek home, and innumerable letters to sort—all this was merely a preliminary to the nightly journey up to the line. With all the letters to be re-addressed, and all the registered letters to be handed to their recipients, the task of Post Corporal was full of hard work, responsibility, and often danger.
In conclusion, it must be realized that the Quartermaster's Department enjoyed no immunity from shell fire, with which people are only too apt to connect the lives of those not dwelling in the line itself. Their stores and billets were frequently and—in Armentières, for instance—very heavily shelled. The nightly trip to the line was no sinecure, but often enough a most dangerous performance. Apart from this, their labours were unending. The battalion came out from the line for spells in reserve, or even in rest; the work of the Quartermaster's Department only varied, it did not decrease.