King George, accompanied by Field Marshals Roberts and Kitchener, Sir George Perley, member of the Canadian Cabinet, and Sir Richard McBride, Prime Minister of British Columbia, visited the troops in November, 1914.
The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, composed largely of soldiers who had seen war service, left for the front early in December, 1914, and joined the Twenty-seventh British Division.
On February 4, 1915, a division composed of three infantry brigades, three artillery brigades, ammunition column, divisional engineers, divisional mounted troops, and divisional train left Salisbury Plain and sailed from Avonmouth, the last transport reaching St.-Nazaire, on the Bay of Biscay, in the second week of February, 1915.
The 6th, 9th, 11th, 12th, and 17th Battalions remained in England as the base brigade of the division. Later these battalions were formed into the Canadian Training Depot, and afterward, with the coming of reenforcements, into the Canadian Training Division, under the command of Brigadier General J. C. MacDougall.
The Canadians had a long journey of 350 miles after landing in France before they arrived at the front within the triangle of country between St.-Omer on the west, Ypres on the east, and Béthune to the south. At this time the entire British army in Europe was contained in this territory.
When the Canadians arrived in England the British held a front between twenty and thirty miles long running from Ypres on the north, where the Seventh Division made its historic stand against the Prussian Guards, to Givenchy on the south near the scene of the battle that was afterward fought at Neuve Chapelle. This front the British had continued to maintain through the long winter when it may be truly said that they lived, ate, slept in mud. Mud they were never free from until the welcome spring brought a cessation of the almost continuous rain and the winds dried up the mire.
When the Canadians took their turn as a division in the trenches there were no sensational happenings. They were not called upon to attack, nor was their bravery tested in holding a trench against a determined assault by the enemy. But the weeks spent in trench work were not wasted, and they learned much that was to serve them well in after days when they were in the thick of the hardest fighting of the war. There were casualties from snipers and sufficient excitement to keep them keyed up to the proper fighting spirit.
Here we must leave for a time the Canadian Division and follow the fortunes of Princess Patricia's Light Infantry Regiment, which was the first to carry the badge of Canada on the battle fields of Flanders.
As previously noted, the "Princess Pats" arrived in France December, 1914. The regiment was hurried north to strengthen the Eightieth Brigade of the Twenty-seventh British Division holding a thin line which the Germans continually assailed. For several months the regiment was engaged in hard winter trench work. Later a section of trench in front of the village of St.-Eloi was occupied by them. This was a dangerous position where it was impossible to raise the hand without attracting the bullet of a sniper. The Germans seemed to know the position of every dugout in the Princess Patricia's lines. It was said that they had rifles so fixed as to cover them exactly, and it was only necessary to pull the trigger without aiming. The regiment lost some valuable officers at this time.
It was while they held the trenches before St.-Eloi that the Patricias were engaged in an important action. On February 28, 1915, the Germans had completed a sap which became a source of danger and loss. The battalion commander decided to sweep away this menace. Major Hamilton Gault and Lieutenant Colquhoun went out after dark and made a careful reconnoissance of the German position, returning to the line with much valuable information. But more was needed, and Lieutenant Colquhoun went out again and alone and fell into the hands of the enemy.