The 3rd Battalion Grenadiers was the only regular battalion at home. For months it had fretted at being left behind when all the other battalions had left, for they had a history second to none in the British Army, and had taken part in all the great campaigns during the last two hundred years.
Whether it was part of that mysterious thing called the British Constitution, or whether the idea of keeping one regular battalion in London emanated from the brain of some timid member of the Cabinet, is not clear, but the 3rd Battalion remained at home after all the rest of the regular army had gone. At first it was said that two regular battalions would have to remain behind in London, one for the King, the other for the Houses of Parliament, but His Majesty, having at once disposed of the idea that he needed the services of any regular battalion, Lord Kitchener decided to retain only one battalion, and that happened to be the 3rd Battalion Grenadiers.
The only exceptional event during the time it remained at home that deserves to be chronicled is the fact that for the first time in history this Battalion found the duties in London in service dress. On the 27th of August 1914 the King's Guard, under Captain de Crespigny, mounted for the first time in khaki.
Although the 3rd Battalion was unable to go as a unit, the terrible casualties the 1st and 2nd Battalions had suffered during the first months of the war made it very difficult to find the large draft required, and so it happened that most of the officers and non-commissioned officers made their way to the front in the other battalions.
When the Guards Division was formed it was decided to send out not only the 3rd Battalion but also the 4th Battalion, and to form another reserve battalion. On July 26 the Battalion paraded at Chelsea Barracks, and Colonel Streatfeild read to them a message from Field-Marshal His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, who was still Governor-General of Canada:
On hearing our 3rd Battalion has been placed under Orders to leave for the front, I ask you to give them a personal message from myself, wishing them God-speed and success, and assuring them of the great confidence I repose in them nobly to continue their splendid record of the past, and to assist our brave battalions at the front, who have so gloriously maintained the traditions of the First Regiment of Guards. May every blessing rest upon the Regiment, of which I am so proud to be the Colonel.
Arthur,
Colonel, Grenadier Guards.
The Battalion crossed over via Southampton to Havre in the steamboat Queen Alexandra, accompanied by a destroyer, and curiously enough was disembarked by one old Grenadier, Captain Sir F. E. W. Harvey-Bathurst, Bt., and entrained by another, Major G. C. W. Heneage. It proceeded by train to Wizernes, where it detrained, and marched into billets at Esquerdes. On July 31 the Battalion was inspected by General Stopford, who said it was the finest Battalion he had seen. On August 18 it took part in a review held on the aviation ground at St. Omer, when M. Millerand, the French War Minister, Lord Kitchener, and Sir John French inspected those battalions of the Guards Division which had arrived.
The 2nd Guards Brigade was complete on August 23, and was placed under the command of Brigadier-General J. Ponsonby, as Brigadier-General Lowther had been appointed Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief. On August 26 the officers of the four battalions of Grenadier Guards dined together at Wisques.
During the two months spent at Esquerdes the Battalion was busily engaged in training. Officers and non-commissioned officers went through several courses, and were initiated into the mysteries of bombing and the mechanism of the new Lewis gun.