June 26, 1916.—“All has gone well,” writes the officer commanding “D” Squadron, “and I am taking all my three children with me.” And later from Marseilles he mentions “the glad news that we are taking our own children with us.... We have handed over a certain number of the best of the walers and country-breds to the 30th, including, I am sorry to say, ‘Jean,’ and the remainder all go to the depot to-morrow when we depart.... All the Regiment will be together, and the ‘children’ with us too. It could hardly be better, all things considered.”

From Port Said again: “All is well. It’s the usual dull routine, but better than I remember it before in these parts. The great mercy for me is having the children with us. They give me an interest and are most comfortable—tons of room, two or three stalls for each, and very flourishing so far. ‘Caprice’ was off her feed and with a temperature yesterday afternoon, but only for a little while, and is as fit as anything to-day.”

It is satisfactory to know that for the most part they arrived safely in India, and, though none the better for their voyage, were able to do good service afterwards.

In spite of all it was not an exhilarating voyage. Very little was known to the Regiment about the prospect before them, and not much about what was going on in France.

Lieut. Bash. H. Williams, M.C.
(Wounded in France with 11th Hussars,
31st October 1914)		 Lieut. M. H. C. Doll
(Wounded near Authuille,
11th September 1915)		 Lieut. T. E. Lawson-Smith
(Killed with the 11th Hussars, near
Messiner, 1st November, 1914)
Capt. J. O. Oakes
Capt. A. M. Sassoon, O.B.E., M.C. Lieut. W. P. Crawford-Greene Capt. S. V. Kennedy, M.C.

Captain Eve—Suez.—“As soon as we arrived yesterday we heard the push had started and that we had got through on a front of twenty-five miles, but we didn’t get the telegrams with any details till the afternoon: let us only pray we may do as well as we hope.”

Alas! it was a vain prayer. There were to be many “pushes” before the final one two years later.

July 14.—“We get to the end of our march to-morrow. I needn’t tell you how glad we shall be. It has seemed desperately long—very different to when going the other way. We are all very fit and flourishing.”

A later letter describes the voyage in more detail, and may be worth quoting as an example of war-time voyages. “We went by ourselves, but had various kinds of escorts through the Mediterranean: sometimes a destroyer, sometimes a sham tramp steamer, really of course armed with guns, and sometimes with no visible escort at all; and we went the most peculiar way, all round the west and south sides of Corsica and Sardinia, south of Malta, north of Crete, then south and zigzagged about a lot before making Port Said. I believe a ship was sunk off the north-east corner of Crete not long before us. I think our sham tramp steamers are the most lovely things. Of course we had all lights out, ports closed, no smoking after dark, and great discomfort, and heaps of guards and submarine look-outs, and it was very hot but mostly very calm. However, all this ended at Port Said, where also they took off our gun and gunners.... We left at 10 P.M. and went through the Canal very slowly, stopping a long time in the lakes. The camps and trenches had increased enormously, the most perfect trenches now, and huge camps. It is quite a sight, very strong, and there must be a large force in Egypt now. They looked wonderfully fit, and yelled to us to know where we were going, but we would not say.”

Arrived at Bombay, the Regiment was informed that it was definitely for Mesopotamia, and the news was received with the greatest pleasure, as doubtful rumours had been in circulation. They had, in fact, been better founded than most rumours, for shortly before the arrival of the Thirteenth, it had been decided that the Brigade was not to leave the country again. The Thirteenth were to return to Meerut, and the Seventh Hussars were to take their place with the Mesopotamia force. Why this decision was altered does not appear, but report said that the Seventh were wanted on the North-West Frontier, where trouble was brewing, and the Thirteenth were taken for Mesopotamia after all. Nevertheless, the old Meerut Brigade was broken up, the 3rd Skinner’s Horse and 30th Cavalry being retained in India, to their intense disappointment. The 3rd and the Thirteenth Hussars had lain alongside one another for five years, and it was with special regret that they said good-bye to each other. The place of the two native regiments was taken by the 13th and 14th Indian Lancers. The Meerut Brigade now became the 7th Cavalry Brigade of the Mesopotamia Field Force. It retained with it V Battery of Horse Artillery, which had suffered so severely in France.