From the first the men had looked forward eagerly to the day when kilts would be issued to the Battalion. Their wish was realized in August, 1917, when kilts of the Argyll and Sutherland tartan were authorized to be worn, and sufficient kilts were sent to the Quartermaster to clothe the whole Battalion.
Reference has been made already to the promise given to the 5th Division that it would go to France intact. That promise was repeated several times, and the hope that it would be kept was the only ground on which men could be induced to remain contentedly in England. But no phrase has done better service during the War than the phrase “military exigencies,” and it was invoked once again to justify the disbanding of the 5th Division in February, 1918.
Coincident with the breakup of the Division came the order to the 185th to furnish a draft of two officers and one hundred men to each of the three Nova Scotian Battalions in France—the 25th, 85th and R.C.R. All the men at once volunteered. Sergeants reverted to the rank of private in order to get to France more quickly; Colonels reverted and became Majors; Majors became Captains and Captains Subalterns. The drafts for France were finally selected, and the rest of the Battalion was ordered to be sent to Bramshott, to be absorbed by the 17th Reserve. On February 23rd the Battalion paraded for the last time, the drafts for France stood fast, the draft for Bramshott swung out on the London-Portsmouth Road, the pipers played their last march, and the 185th passed out of existence as an Overseas Unit forever.
It is idle now to lament its unhappy fate, or to deplore the peculiar policy that was pursued toward it and other Battalions of the 5th Division, but Cape Bretoners everywhere will always have difficulty in restraining a regretful sigh over the lot of their own and only Battalion. Let it always be remembered, however, that through no fault of its own did the 185th fail to reach France as a Unit. It kept faith with the people of Cape Breton, and it established a standard which any Battalion might be proud to emulate.
But though there never fell to this Battalion the supreme honor of battle or the glory of triumph, its individual members went forth to war, stronger in training, in discipline, in comradeship and in spirit from their association with the Cape Breton Highlanders. Every officer of the Battalion saw service in some theatre of war, and five of them now sleep on the field of honor—Lieutenants Fraser, Holland, MacIvor, Livingstone and J. O. MacLeod. Nearly every other officer of the Battalion has been wounded, and several have been decorated for bravery. Of the men it is enough to say that incomplete returns show that 136 of them fell in action. On their graves may the turf lie lightly. Truer hearts or more gallant spirits never fought for any cause, and to them we may be sure that every Cape Breton tongue will apply with heartfelt sincerity the words that have been chosen for the crosses that will mark the graves of British soldiers buried in France—“Their Name Liveth Forevermore.”
LIEUT. A. FRASER
(killed in action).
LIEUT. J. H. M‘IVOR
(killed in action).
