At the conclusion of the service, British bugles sounded the "Last Post." Then the body was reverently borne down the steps and placed in the motor ambulance which was to convey it to Boulogne. As this was done the guard of honour once more sprang to the present, French trumpeters blew a fanfare, and the guns of Lord Roberts' old regiment thundered a salute.
Thus the British Army said farewell to its old chief, and will remember him for ever as a great soldier and a great Christian.
In the fighting round Ypres fell that distinguished British officer, General Hamilton. The record of his funeral will show a great contrast to that of Lord Roberts, but it gives us a weird and pathetic picture of the circumstances under which our chaplains do their work.
While standing on a hillock near the village of La Couteau in the midst of his staff, the commander of our Third Division was struck by a fragment of shrapnel and killed. They buried him "at dead of night," and the whole scene recalls the famous lines on the burial of Sir John Moore.
It was a sad and silent party of distinguished French and British officers which followed the coffin up the winding path to the little churchyard, where the grave had been hastily dug, near the shell-battered church. The only light was that of the electric flash lamp used by the Rev. E.G.F. Macpherson (the senior Church of England chaplain) to enable him to read the burial service.
BRITISH TRENCHES IN THE AISNE DISTRICT.
Drawn by D. Macpherson.[ToList]
He had scarcely begun to speak its solemn words when the Germans opened a perfect hurricane of fire. But the chaplain never altered the measured dignity of his intonation, though shells were bursting all around and the enemy's bullets were pattering against what remained of the church walls.
This weird service over, the officers present had to hurry away to their respective duties with the rattle of German musketry in their ears. As General Smith-Dorrien also left, he said to Mr. Macpherson: "A true soldier's funeral, Padre. We couldn't fire a volley, but the enemy have given him the last salute for us."