lowers. General Alderson made a nice speech, which was translated to
the townsfolk, and then he presented the medal. We were invited into
the house, and the girl's health was proposed and drunk by the General
in a glass of Romarin Champagne. We heard afterwards that the country
people were much impressed by the way the British Army had recognized
the gallantry of a poor Belgian maidservant.

One day a German aeroplane was brought down behind our lines, near
Ration Farm. Of its two occupants one was killed. On the aeroplane was
found a Colt machine-gun, which had been taken by the Germans from the
14th Battalion several months before, in the Second Battle of Ypres.
It now came back to the brigade which had lost it. I buried the airman
near Ration Farm, in a grave, which the men did up neatly and over
which they erected a cross with his name upon it.

Although our Headquarters were at Nieppe, the village was really (p. 112)
in the British Area, and so we were informed towards the end of
November that we had been ordered to move to St. Jans Cappel. On
Monday, November 22nd I started off by car via Bailleul to my new
billet. Although I had left Nieppe and its pleasant society with great
regret, I was quite pleased with my new home. It was a small house
belonging to a widow, on the road that led from St. Jans Cappel up to
Mount Kemmel. The house itself was brick and well built. The
landlady's rooms were on one side of the passage, and mine were on the
other. A large garret overhead gave a billet for Ross and my sergeant
clerk. In the yard there was a stable for the horse. So the whole
family was quite comfortably housed, and Ross undertook to do my
cooking. The room which I used as my office in the front of the house
had two large windows in it, and a neat tiled floor. The furniture was
ample. At the back, up some steps, was my bedroom, and the window from
it opened upon the yard. A former occupant of the house, a Major
Murray, of King Edward's Horse, had left a series of maps on the wall,
on which pins were stuck with a bit of red cord passing through them,
to show the position of our front line. These maps deeply impressed
visitors with my military exactness. In that little office I have
received many guests of all ranks. I always said that the chaplain's
house was like a church, and all men met there on equal terms.
Sometimes it was rather difficult however, to convince them that this
was the case. On one occasion two