VII. 8th Battalion

In September, 1914, when all the real manhood of England not already soldiers were crowding to the Colours, and when elderly men and young boys were so strangely forgetful as to the years of their birth, and when all birth certificates of gallant Englishmen at either end of what is called military age were so universally mislaid and lost, Colonel F. C. Romer, C.B., C.M.G., then in his sixty-fourth year, was offered his choice of raising any one of three specified Service Battalions, and he chose to raise the 8th Battalion of the Buffs. He was a member of Boodles and at the time honorary secretary of the club. He was a believer in mature men and wished, at any rate, to have a certain leaven of the middle-aged amongst his officers, so his first step was to turn to a few of his club friends, and Major Dansy, Major A. Crawley, Captain Hare, Captain W. Howard, Lieut. Sir William Cooke and Captain W. D. Johnson immediately followed their leader, as did two of the club waiters. All of them were over forty years of age except, perhaps, the two privates. The considerable detachment from Boodles Club above referred to proceeded to camp at Shoreham, where they found awaiting them Captain E. C. Norman (adjutant), Regimental Sergt.-Major A. Barton, four N.C.O.’s and a draft of five hundred odd from Canterbury. By the end of September the full complement of officers had arrived and training was going on in earnest and continued very strenuously all October, in spite of a complete lack of every necessity: clothing, arms, boots, equipment, camp furniture and even army forms. In the first week the battalion was inspected by the divisional commander, everybody but the officers and one or two N.C.O.’s being in mufti, and some in rags. This state of things, however, was common enough in our island at this period and nobody minded and all went well, because the old soldiers were keen to pass on all they knew and the young ones to absorb every kind of military knowledge.

The month of November brought a change for the worse in the way of weather, and things were not so pleasant. The parade ground was a sea of mud, tents leaked and men were seldom dry and never very clean. On more than one occasion rows of tents were flooded out and whole companies marched out at night to find what shelter they could. The officers’ mess, the board-schools and even the station waiting-room were, at different times, used as billets for the soaked and shivering battalion. Hopes of moving shortly into new huts did something to cheer the somewhat drooping spirits, but, owing to shortage of labour, these were not completed till months after the specific date, and on the 1st December the brigade moved into billets at Worthing, a very welcome change. The winter passed comfortably in billets, but there were renewed delays as regards equipment.

On the 1st April, 1915, the battalion proceeded to Reigate for a hard fortnight of trench digging. The system of entrenching which now obtained in the army in France differed widely from that to which the instructors still in England were accustomed to, and the works turned out by the zealous new armies at this time differed considerably from those with which they later on became familiar. The next move was back to the old camp, where the hutments were at last ready for occupation. It is always easier to train during the summer season than at other times, and the long days at battalion and brigade field days brought the unit more forward than all the previous months. There were, about June, upwards of forty officers in the 8th Battalion, and even this figure was small when compared with other corps. In June there was another journey, this time to the Aisne Barracks at Blackdown near Aldershot. The object now was divisional training during July and August, culminating in a review by Lord Kitchener and a week’s trench digging at Chobham. The battalion provided the King’s Guard during His Majesty’s visit to Aldershot in August. During the third week in August rumours of going abroad grew stronger, and the last week or so was spent in feverish preparation. The battalion eventually sailed on the night of the 31st August/1st September as part of the 72nd Infantry Brigade and 24th Division. And now five battalions of the Buffs were warring in France and two serving their country in India. The officers of the 8th Battalion who embarked for the war were Colonel F. C. Romer, C.B., C.M.G., in command, Major D. F. Robinson, 2nd in command, Captain F. W. Watson, adjutant, Lieut. A. Barton, recently promoted Qr.-Master, 2nd Lieut. E. T. Smith, M.G. Officer, Lieut. J. R. Spensley, R.A.M.C.

A Company.

B Company.

C Company.